Empowerment
by rudeboy1971
Summary: Bianca and Maggie have made their big move to Paris, and are pretty much settled in to their new lives. What now? What will give them the courage to move forward? Make sure you have read Trans Atlantic Thoughts and Settling In.
1. Chapter 1

April 4th - Night

Bianca Montgomery sat in the kitchen of her large Paris apartment. She knew that her best friend/nanny to her infant daughter, Miranda/roommate, Maggie Stone, was due back at any moment from her night classes at the university. She stood and walked over to the stove to start a kettle of water boiling for tea.

This had already become their ritual in the one short week Maggie had been going to school. She would come home, enter her room by her private outer door, change clothes and meet Bianca in the kitchen. There they would sit and discuss their respective days, over a cup of tea.

Tonight though….tonight Bianca was going to let Maggie go first. She was going to have Maggie tell her about what exciting new thing she had learned about medicine. Or what experiment they were going to work on next. She was going to let her go on and on about whatever, because that would allow her to delay telling her the news she had learned just a few hours before.

April 4th – Evening

Bianca was just preparing Miranda for her bath when her cell phone began ringing. She was guessing it was Myrtle, as she seemed to have a knack for calling during her daughter's baths. While trying to juggle Miranda with one hand, she scooped up her phone, and earpiece so she could talk hands free, and answered.

"Bonjour!" she answered, in a jaunty, happy voice.

"Binks?" replied the somber voice at the other end of the line.

It was Kendall Hart, Bianca's half-sister. "Kendall? Is everything ok? You don't sound right."

"Bianca, I….I…don't even know where to start."

Bianca placed Miranda in the tub. She was too far along in the bath process to do anything else. Bianca gulped before replying. "Start at the beginning Kendall. Whatever it is that's happened, start at the beginning."

"It's Jonathan….Jonathan Lavery is dead."

Bianca felt her jaw slacken. She was not a member of the "Jonathan Lavery Fan Club", that was for sure, but this still shocked her. "How? What happened."

Kendall took a deep breath. "It seems big brother Braden wasn't the only member of the Lavery clan with a screw loose Binks. It's all out in the open now, it was all Jonathan…everything. He shot Ryan…he poisoned Greenlee…he killed Edmund…"

Bianca had been kneeling next to the tub, bathing her daughter. She now fell backwards, landing on her rear end and was in a sitting position. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Why? What happened? Why in the world would he do any of those things? And how do you know he did?"

Taking another deep breath, combined with a sigh, Kendall continued. "I know all this because I just spent some quality time trapped in a cave with Greenlee and Lily due to his highness, king of the psychos!"

Bianca's head was swimming, she had a million questions, all wanting to come pouring out of her mouth at once. "Ok…I've got the part he did all the things to Ryan and Greenlee and that", Bianca had to pause for a moment while she dealt with the concept of Jonathan as a killer, "….that he killed Edmund, but what's this about a cave?"

"Jonathan knew that Lily had seen him that night in the Wildwind stables. Jackson sent her and Greenlee to Lily's old school, figuring they would be safer there while this got sorted out. On their way there, Jonathan intercepted them and took them hostage."

"And you? How did he get you?"

"I was out for a walk in the woods…long story…and stumbled across the whole thing. Next thing I know I'm locked up in the cave with them."

Bianca got back up to her knees now to quickly finish Miranda's bath. "And at some point during all this, he confessed to…well..everything?"

"Yes."

"So how did he end up dead?"

Kendall paused, and finally replied in a soft voice "Ryan…Ryan had to shoot him Binks."

Bianca could feel the tears welling up, she always had a good relationship with Ryan, and knew what a good man he was, and how desperately he had wanted to help his brother after it was discovered he had abused Maggie. "Is he…is he ok?"

"He's catatonic Binks…god…there's so much more to this story. I'm barely scraping the surface…..we all thought their other brother, Braden, had been behind everything that happened, it turned out he had tried stopping Jonathan, and got himself killed for it….his body was in the cave with us, but we didn't know it until the end."

"HOLD IT! Both of Ryan's brothers are dead? And he just learned of this…when did all of this happen?"

"Really late last night. And we are guessing Jonathan is dead. Ryan's shot didn't kill him. Jonathan had the cave rigged with explosives, strapped ever so lovingly to brother Braden's body. They're still digging for their bodies."

"I can't….I can't even wrap my head around all of this Kendall."

"I know Binks, I know. Look, I have to get back to Greenlee, she's at the hospital with Ryan. Why don't you call some of the other folks who know everything to get some more of the details…call Reggie…he'll be able to fill you in. Or Tad and Aidan. I have got to go though, but I knew you and….oh god Binks!…how are you going to tell Maggie about all of this?"

Bianca lifted Miranda out of the tub, wrapped her in a towel, and once her daughter was fully in her arms, she froze. "I….I…have no idea Kendall…oh god Kendall…this is going to tear her apart!"

April 4th – Night

Bianca had done just as her sister suggested, she had called everyone she could think of, getting the news piecemeal, but she had gotten it. Now, as she stood next to the steaming kettle, she poured water into two mugs with tea bags, just as she heard Maggie's door opening. That was soon followed by the "shave-and-a-haircut" knocking ritual they had established. Bianca knew that she only had moments left to steel herself for the coming storm of Maggie's emotions.

Maggie sat with her hands wrapped around the mug in front of her, staring at it like the brown liquid inside somehow held the answers to everything she had just learned. She hadn't said a word since she had uttered a question to Bianca, a simple "So, anything go on around here today?"

Bianca had started slowly and softly with the news she had learned while Maggie had been in class. Maggie had not spoken a word. Instead she had just sat and listened. She soaked in the information of the man she thought she had loved…the man she had let into her bed…the man she had almost married…was something so dark and foul, that there were not even words to describe his brand of evil.

Maggie hadn't even noticed that Bianca hadn't said a word in well over 5 minutes. It wasn't until Bianca reached across the butcher's block, and squeezed her hand, that Maggie realized she hadn't even been in reality.

"Are you ok? Do you need to talk?"

Maggie remained motionless and silent for another moment. Finally, she stood up, and very calmly walked over to the kitchen trash can….and vomited.

Bianca sat on the kitchen floor, her back against the cabinets and Maggie's head laying in her lap, facing out. Bianca's right hand was slowly moving up and down Maggie's right arm, while with her left, she was pulling all the stray hairs out of her face.

No words had been spoken, no questions asked, no answers given. The kitchen was enveloped in silence, except for the sounds of Bianca's hand moving up down the sleeve of Maggie's shirt.

Maggie opened her mouth to ask a question, but had to close it again, and swallow before her voice would work. "Are….are they alright?"

"Who?"

"Kendall…and Greenlee…and Lily….are they alright?"

"They're fine. They're all fine."

"G…good."

The silence returned again for a few moments before Maggie asked another question. "Did….did I cause this?"

Bianca's jaw dropped. "Did you cause what?"

Maggie sat up now and also leaned back against the cabinets, her legs crossed in front of her. She stared forward, not looking at Bianca. "Did I cause him to go over the edge?"

"No Maggie….NO!" Bianca got up to her knees and grabbed both of Maggie's hands and stared into her eyes. "Do not go there Maggie….you can not blame yourself for this. No matter what, you can not think you caused this to happen."

"But…maybe…maybe if I hadn't broken up with him…." her eyes were starting to squint, trying to hold back the tears.

Bianca moved her arms to Maggie's back and pulled her in as tight as she could in to a hug. "Maggie, you can not think that! You can not think you had anything to do with this. This was all Jonathan. Every last bit of it was his insanity, his doing. It had nothing to do with your breaking up with him!"

"But…but if I hadn't left Pine Valley with you….maybe I could have helped him…maybe I could have stopped this….he could have killed them Bianca."

Bianca pushed Maggie back now. Her hands went to Maggie's shoulders, pinning her against the cabinets. "And if you had stayed in town, it could have been you in that cave. If you hadn't broken up with him, you could have been laying dead in that cave next to his brother."

"But I brought him in to everyone's life…."

Bianca was shaking her head for emphasis. "No you didn't. He was already around. All of this would have happened with or without you. All of it."

Maggie paused for a moment, opening her eyes enough to stare into Bianca's. "No….he wouldn't have threatened you that night at the Miranda Center and…my god…Miranda." Maggie forcefully shoved Bianca aside, throwing herself towards the trash can to once again vomit.

Bianca crawled on all fours over to her friend and sat down. She reached over and brushed Maggie's hair back out of her face. "You can play the 'What if…?' game with yourself all night long Maggie, but it's not going to change the outcome of what happened. You are still better off having left him. You are still better off having left Pine Valley. And everyone we care about is safe now. What happened was the product of his upbringing, and what his father did to him and his brothers. It had nothing to do with your time with him."

"If…if I had just seen it…."

"If you had seen it, you would probably be dead like Edmund is for figuring it out."

This caused Maggie to heave again.

Bianca stood up and grabbed a towel. She ran it under the cold water from the faucet for a moment, and then wrung it out. She walked back to Maggie, and sat down next to her again. She placed her hands on her shoulders and turned her to face her. "Come here…let's get you cleaned up."

Maggie got to her knees and leaned back so she rested on her heels. As Bianca ran the cool cloth over Maggie's face, she went to speak again. "Bianca…I just….I just don't know who to blame for this….if so many things had gone differently…if…"

"Ok, you want a starting point to all this, and someone to blame? Fine. How about you walking in on Babe and I in bed when we were trying to fool JR? Or, you want to go back further? How about we go back to when you told me you loved me and I threw Lena in your face and rejected you? You want to blame someone for setting all this in motion, you blame me, not yourself."

That seemed to sober Maggie up quickly. "Bianca…I…no…you can't….you can't blame yourself."

"See? If you play that game with yourself, it's never ending. You just can't do it Maggie. You can't let yourself think you are at fault for this, because if you do, it's like he still has power over you." Bianca reached up and pulled some of Maggie's hair far enough forward so that she could show it her. "You were getting rid of him Maggie…don't let another of his insane acts pull you back down…if you do, he wins again."

Maggie bowed her head and stared at the floor. There was silence again as Bianca obsessively brushed Maggie's hair back with her finger tips.

"I….I think I'm going to go to bed." Maggie whispered.

"Ok…are you sure you want to be alone right now?" Bianca asked, her voice dripping with concern.

"Yeah….I think I just need to be alone for awhile….thank you Bianca."

"For what? Giving you some of the worst news of your life?"

"For still caring about me."

Bianca fought back what she really wanted to say to that, but instead just softly said, "Always."

Maggie stood up and shakily walked to her bedroom door. As she got there, she paused, and asked, without turning around, "Is there…is there anyway you could take Miranda tomorrow?"

"Of course."

"Thanks." and with that, Maggie disappeared into her room.

Bianca heaved a heavy sigh and set about cleaning up the kitchen. "You know Jonathan, I wish you were still alive….so that I could kill you."

April 5th – Morning

Bianca shuffled around the kitchen, listening intently for any signs of life coming from Maggie's room. Nothing was to be heard.

She picked up the phone and called her new personal assistant, Aurélia, to tell her she wouldn't be in today. She was discovering more and more that she really wasn't essential to the day-to-day running of Cambias, so she didn't especially feel any guilt about canceling her appointments for the day. Being here was going to be far more important.

After taking care of the office, she was just preparing to call Patrick and tell him not to bother with coming to get her, when the intercom buzzer went off. Bianca glanced at the clock, 8:30, it had to be him.

She walked over and pressed the intercom button. "Good morning Patrick. I'm afraid I'm not going in today."

"Ma'am….may I come up?"

"Of course." She pressed the button to open the outer security door, and left the front door of the apartment partially open so Patrick could let himself in. She walked back towards the kitchen to start making some breakfast. She was hoping the smell of food might bring Maggie out of her room.

She walked by Miranda who was sitting in her high chair, quietly playing with a stuffed animal. The little girl had been unusually quiet all morning, almost as if she could sense things weren't right.

Just as she got the eggs out of the refrigerator, she heard footsteps in the entrance hall, and turned to see Patrick walking towards her in the kitchen.

"Good morning Patrick. I'm sorry I didn't get a hold of you in time to let you know I wasn't going in, but it was kind of a last minute decision."

"Not a problem Ma'am. I had guessed something might be going on when I saw the tabloid reporters down stairs."

Bianca shut her eyes and shook her head. She had contended with them once already since being in France, about why she had moved here, and if it had anything to do with JR Chandler. Having spent her entire life being the daughter of Erica Kane, she knew what it was like to live under constant scrutiny, but poor Maggie wasn't used to it, and she was sure to get caught up in this particular story.

Bianca finally opened her eyes, and glanced over the door to Maggie's room and sighed. "I don't think she will even be leaving her room today, so hopefully she won't have to deal with them."

Patrick glanced over at the door also. "May I ask how she took it Ma'am?"

"As well as you could expect anyone to take the news that their fiancée was a homicidal psychopath." She turned and continued with preparing breakfast. Suddenly it dawned on her. "How did you know about it? About Jonathan I mean."

"I am informed of any news regarding yours or Miranda's safety. Though he was Maggie's fiancée, there is enough crossover that I was informed of it this morning when I picked up the car. I thought you might not go in, but felt it best to still come over and check on you both."

Bianca smiled for the first time since last night when she had picked up the phone, only to find Kendall giving her the news. "Thank you Patrick. You've formed quite a bond with Maggie since we got here, haven't you?"

"She reminds me so much of my own daughters. They have both gone off and started their own families, and they do not get to visit often, so it is almost like having them both back taking care of you two." Patrick was silent for a moment as he watched Bianca continuing to get ready to make breakfast. "I should probably give you both some privacy at a time like this." He stood, and turned to leave through the dining room, pausing only once to again look at Maggie's door. "I will be available if you need me Ma'am."

"Patrick, please, sit, have some eggs….I…I could use the company."

Patrick paused for a moment before finally taking a seat at the butcher's block. "Alright…thank you Ma'am."

"Please…call me Bianca….I don't normally cook breakfast for people who call me 'Ma'am'."

"Thank you…Bianca. And I must say, I am not used to my employer's fixing me eggs." Patrick said with a chuckle.

"Really? You mean Alexander Cambias never had you over for eggs?" Bianca asked with obvious, mock sincerity.

"No, I can't say I remember that ever happened."

"Well, you can say you have seen both sides of me now."

"Both sides? I'm not sure I understand."

"Well, right now you are seeing the Montgomery, down-to-earth part of me. The Kane half….well the Kane half you met in the parking garage awhile back when I fired Jean on the spot."

"Ah….well, I must say I like both sides. The few times I have dealt with Jean, I have not been a fan of his attitude, so it did not sadden me to see him get to meet the Kane side." He said with an enormous grin. "And to which ever side is fixing the eggs, I thank you again."

"No problem." Bianca began cracking eggs into the pan while she continued to talk.

Patrick again glanced over at Maggie's door. "Has she done anything to even indicate she is in there?"

"Not a peep since last night. I stayed up for awhile and cleaned the kitchen, but from the time she went in there, it has been total silence." She was scrambling the eggs as she talked, being a little louder with the pan then usual, hoping something, anything, would motivate Maggie to come out of her room.

"And you? How are you doing?"

Bianca stirred the eggs around with a spatula, contemplating the question. "I'm fine…concerned for her…..I just want to run in there and hold her…to tell her everything is going to be ok."

"But you realize you can't." Patrick said softly. "You know you have to let her do this in her own time…her own way. She has to come to you."

Bianca heaved a sigh as she turned off the stove top and served up the eggs on to three plates. "I know…and that's why I haven't rushed in there…but it doesn't make it any easier just sitting by." She used a fourth plate to cover one of the three she had served up, just in case Maggie would choose to join them.

She walked over and handed one plate to Patrick, and set another down across from him for herself. Now Miranda began to fuss at the sight of food, and Bianca pulled the high chair closer so she could give her daughter a couple of small bites from her plate. "I just wish she would do something so that we knew she was in there."

Patrick set his fork down, stood up, and walked over to the door. "Maggie? It's Patrick…could you give us a knock on the wall so we at least know you are alive in there?"

There was a thump on the wall, approximately where her bed would be.

"Thank you." Patrick walked back to the stool and sat down and resumed eating his eggs.

Bianca stared with her jaw slightly slackened. "Well yeah…I coulda done that…I..I was just testing you!"

Patrick lifted another forkful of food to his mouth. "Of course Ma'am." He said with a grin.

Patrick had stayed with Bianca until the early evening, when she finally sent him home. He only agreed to do this, once Bianca had promised she and Maggie would come have dinner with him and his wife some night soon.

Even though she wasn't that hungry, she ordered Maggie's favorite pizza, spicy chicken and olives, as soon as he had left. The mixture didn't appeal to her much, but she thought she might try the food odor trick again to get Maggie out of her room.

Once the pizza had arrived, she stood next to Maggie's door with the box lid open, hoping the fragrance would drift into her room, and lure her out. She briefly had a mental image of a cartoon character being lifted off their feet, and pulled along by some lovely smell. No such luck this time.

As the night dragged on, she thought she finally heard some movement, and then she was sure of it when she heard the distinct sound of empty cardboard boxes being dropped onto the floor. The hollow thud was unmistakable. "Oh no….she isn't packing to leave is she?" Bianca thought. She knew Maggie hadn't thrown out all of the boxes her items had arrived in yet. "Could she be turning around to use them to head back to Pine Valley with?" she wondered.

She walked over to Maggie's door and made a fist to knock, but stopped at the last second. She unclenched her hand and just laid the palm very gently, and quietly, against the door. Patrick's advice of letting her do this in her own time, playing over again in her head. "She has to come to me. I can't rush her though this."

She turned and glanced over at Miranda, who had been a quiet little angel all. Now her eyes were getting heavier by the second. Bianca walked over and picked her up to take her to bed. She figured she could leave her post for a few minutes.

Once in Miranda's nursery, Bianca changed her into fresh pajamas and laid the tired girl in her crib. Reaching into the crib, and stroking her daughters back, she whispered "You were such a good girl today…you have no idea how much I appreciate that…and I am sure your Auntie Maggie would too,"

Bianca had returned to the kitchen after putting her daughter to bed, and continued to sit there until her eyes just got too heavy to fight sleep any longer. Though she could still hear Maggie moving around in her room, she had to head up to bed. She stood up, and stared at the door to Maggie's room for a moment, before she finally turned out the lights, and went upstairs.

She stopped to check on Miranda before heading to her own room. Seeing that all was well with her daughter, she passed through the master bathroom and into her bedroom. She changed out of the jeans and t-shirt she had worn all day and into a nightgown.

As she crawled into bed, she glanced over at her nightstand and saw the book she had been reading for the past week. She loved reading in bed, but somehow the idea of a murder mystery like "The Killing Club" just didn't appeal to her tonight. She reached over and turned out the lights.

Though the room was quiet and dark, she couldn't get her mind to stop going over the hundreds of possible scenarios of what Maggie was doing down in her room at that very moment. She tossed and turned, finding no comfortable position that would allow her drift off to sleep. Finally she came to rest flat on her back, and just stared into the black void of night that drifted above her bed.

Bianca wasn't sure how long she had been laying there when she was positive she had heard a door open and close in the kitchen. Perhaps Maggie had left her room at last? As much as she wanted to run downstairs and see, she knew she had to let her friend handle things at her own pace. She couldn't deny it though, she was dying at the thought of talking to Maggie, making sure she was ok.

Her heart quickened all the more when she could see light spilling in under her bedroom door from the second floor landing lights being turned on. Her temples even began to throb as she heard the distinctive sound of the bare flesh of feet slapping against the stairs just outside of her room. Then, from the sliver of light under the door, she saw the silhouettes of two feet standing there.

Bianca turned to lay on her right side so she could face the door, and see the shadow better. She watched as they shifted nervously, back and forth…back and forth. Once, they even turned around as if to leave, but again they came about to face the door. Bianca heard a sharp intake of breath, as if one was steeling themselves for something. The door knob began to turn with excruciating slowness, but turn it did.

As the door slowly swung open, a sliver of light made its way across the floor of the room. It finally landed where Bianca's head lay, blinding her to everything but shapes. As her eyes adjusted, she made out the form of a back-lit Maggie standing in the doorway to her room. Her right hand still on the door knob, her left foot raised so it only rested on the very tips of her toes.

She couldn't make out her face really at all, but the body language said enough. After a moment of staring at her friend, Bianca shifted her self further away from the side of the bed that was closest to the door. Once enough room was made, she threw back the covers in a silent invitation that Maggie was welcome to join her.

Maggie stood and stared for a moment before finally entering the room and closing the door behind her. She walked over to the bed and crawled in so that her back was to Bianca, but still, she was close enough to be touched. Bianca reached down for the covers, and pulled them over her friend.

Once covered, Bianca was unsure of what to do. If this was anyone other than Maggie, she would immediately drape her arm over them and pull them close to be held. But in this particular case, would that be misread? She finally decided to risk it, and slowly, and gently, hooked her arm over the region of Maggie's waist.

Without saying anything, Maggie slid her arm out from under Bianca's and placed it over the taller girls. She moved so her hand covered Bianca's and….she clasped it. She took it into hers and squeezed for all she was worth.

Bianca took this as a good sign and shifted her body closer so they were in full contact, and lowered head so that it rested against Maggie's. Even though they had never discussed it, what vague memories she had, told her this was much like that night in Maggie's dorm room after Bianca's drinking binge, and her inadvertent, divulging of the secret of her rape.

They laid together like this for a long time, when finally, a dry, cracking voice came out of Maggie and said, "Thank you."

Bianca was taken aback for a moment. "For what?" she inquired.

"For letting me spend a day moping. I needed to get it out of my system."

Bianca smiled. "Well…you can partially thank Patrick for that. He told me I needed to leave you alone, and he kept me company all day, I think to make sure I did just that."

Maggie chuckled softly. "Sounds like him….well no matter what it was…thanks for letting me have today."

"Of course."

The girls laid in silence for several minutes before Bianca finally had the nerve to ask a question. "Maggie….I….earlier I heard what sounded like boxes….in your room….are you…"

"I was packing up all the clothes I bought while I was with him. All of the clothes that looked like his influence."

"Ah…I…I thought maybe you were packing to leave."

Maggie finally turned her head at that comment, and looked over her shoulder at Bianca. "Why would I want to leave?"

"I…I don't know…I just heard boxes being moved, and it made me think that maybe you were moving."

Maggie turned her head again to face away from Bianca. "No…no more moving for awhile. I'm done with running from my problems…my fears."

Bianca hugged her tighter, and again, lowered her head to Maggie's.

"I do have one favor to ask…could you find a charity for me to give all those clothes to? Maybe…maybe an abused woman's home? Just some place where maybe some could good could come out of it."

"I will get Aurélia on it first thing in the morning."

"Thanks Bianca. And you can go back to work tomorrow…promise."

"Are you sure? It's no big deal for me to skip another day, and if you need…"

"No…no more time. Sure, there are more things for me to work out, but I think the best thing for me tomorrow would be some Miranda time."

Bianca smiled. "That's my daughter…the go to girl for what ails you."

Maggie chuckled. "Yeah, who needs a shrink when you have a Munchkin?"

Bianca lifted her head up again, and looked down at Maggie. "You know…you could have one if you wanted…I could find you one…and I'll pay for it."

Maggie turned her head and stared up at her friend with a quizzical look. "A Munchkin? Um..Bianca…"

Bianca threw her head back in laughter. "No! I meant if you wanted to see a psychologist."

"Oh! Ok…you had me wondering there for a second." Maggie turned her head back to face the door. "I…I don't know….can I think on it for awhile?"

"Of course you can, but if you decide you want to, the offer is there. Ok?"

"Ok…again…thanks Bianca….for everything."

Bianca laid her head down again so it lightly rested against Maggie's. "I think you are still ahead in the 'whose owed favors' department."

"I'm not keeping score."

"I know…I'm just saying…anything you need, you should ask without hesitation."

"You know what I could use? For breakfast I mean."

Bianca was puzzled by that. "No clue…what?"

"Some spicy chicken pizza with olives…gee…I wonder if we have some in the fridge."

"Um…yeah….well…"

Maggie chuckled. "I give you points for that one. I swear, as strong as the smell was, you must have been standing right next to the door with the box lid open."

Bianca smiled. "Why don't we try getting some sleep….it's been a long day."

"Good night….Pizza Temptress."

"Good night….best friend."


	2. Chapter 2

April 6th – 6:50 AM

Maggie was awake and laying on her left side in Bianca's bed, facing her best friend who was still asleep. She wasn't sure if she had slept at all during the night, if she had, it was only for a minute or two. Though she lacked sleep, she felt oddly rested and relaxed. Now, with the sunlight clearly bringing the glow to the room that meant the day was starting, she rested here, staring at the source of what had relaxed her….Bianca.

Since they had moved to Paris together, this was the second time she had watched her friend sleep. The first being when Bianca had received the news of Edmund's murder, which, as it turned out, connected to the reason for this second time. Yes, it seemed, all the recent pain in this pair's life could be tracked back to one source, Jonathan Lavery.

Both Bianca and Maggie had tried blaming themselves for being the origin of all the problems; Maggie for being with Jonathan and Bianca for feeling as if she drove Maggie to him. In reality though, all the evil that had come of it rested squarely on Jonathan's shoulders.

As Maggie had spent the entirety of the night and day before lying in her room, contemplating this, she had asked her self numerous times who really was to blame for everything that had happened? Every time the answer was the same, it all came back to Jonathan. No matter if she had dated him or not, he would have gone after Ryan and Greenlee for whatever his reasons were. The only things that would have changed if she hadn't dated him were he would have never had a chance to hit her or had a reason to threaten Bianca and Miranda. Nothing else really would have been different.

In the end, their parts in this whole drama had been Maggie's poor choice of when to confess her love to Bianca and Bianca's not explaining sooner why she and Babe had been in that hotel bed together. Of an equal importance in Maggie's mind, but both were forgivable offenses.

With Jonathan dead, Maggie now felt as if the healing could finally commence in earnest. She had been winning small battles again and again in her fight to purge herself of him. Changing her hair back to its natural color…not wearing any of the clothes he bought her…and most important of all, spending time with Bianca, something he had heavily disapproved of.

So here they were now. The specter of evil gone, the healing process starting, where would they would go from here was the big question. And as Maggie lay in this bed, staring at a peaceful, sleeping Bianca, that question loomed over her like a giant question mark. She knew it was too early to make any life changing decisions, but the time was approaching even faster where she was going to have to confront head on how she felt about her raven haired friend.

She glanced at the clock again and saw it was 7:00. As much as she would love to stay in bed all day staring at Bianca, she needed to get her life started again. As quietly as possible, she slipped out of bed, not wanting to wake her friend. Once she knew she had been successful, she smiled a satisfied grin at her victory. Then, as softly as possible, she leaned over and kissed Bianca's forehead, and followed that with a barely audible, "Thank you for always being there for me."

Turning to her right, she walked to the master bathroom and stopped to freshen up for the morning. She grabbed a hair band, and pulled her hair back into a pony tail. She leaned forward and took a closer look in the mirror at herself. "Wow Stone…" she thought, "two nights of next to no sleep and you could pack a weeks worth of clothes in the bags under your eyes."

She finished her business and went to see if the littlest member of their trio was awake yet. She slowly opened the door and peaked around the corner to find a pair of eyes staring back at her over the bars on the crib. The face quickly smiled and the hands let go of the railing just long enough to smack together in a clap.

"Hey sweetness!" Maggie said as she closed the bathroom door into the nursery behind her. "How is my favorite Munchie Munch doing today huh?" She lifted the little girl out of her crib and gave her a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Gosh, I haven't seen you since…wow…I haven't seen you since before I left for class the other night! I can't believe I haven't seen you in almost 2 days!"

Maggie turned towards the changing table and laid Miranda down to change her and prepare her for the day. It amazed her how much she really had missed seeing Miranda in that time.

Once the little girl was dressed, Maggie picked her up and gave her another tight hug, holding her cheek to cheek. "Ok honey, why don't you and I head downstairs to the kitchen, and I think we'll make your mommy and I some coffee, and maybe, just maybe we'll even remember to feed you!" she said as she tickled Miranda's cheek.

Miranda giggled and pulled her head down into her shoulders to try to escape the dreaded tickling finger.

April 6th – 7:30 AM

Bianca's eyes slowly opened…took a long blink…and opened again. There was still some of the sleep fuzz around the edges, but she could see enough of the room to tell the other side of the bed was empty. It took a few seconds of her brain trying to wake up before she realized what that meant.

It came back to her slowly. Jonathan…the cave…telling Maggie…Maggie crawling into bed with her….Maggie was gone, that was what was missing from her bed. She lifted her head and looked around the room, but there was no sign of her.

Spotting that the clock said 7:30, she surmised that Maggie had already gotten up for the day. She got out of bed, slipped on a robe and slippers, and shuffled off to Miranda's room to check on her. Seeing that her daughter was already gone from her crib, she figured it safe to assume the two ladies in her life had already started their day.

Having woken up with time to spare for once, she decided a morning shower would be nice. She headed off to do just that, to prepare for another fun-filled day of running Cambias Industries in her daughter's name.

April 6th - 7:40 AM

Maggie had already downed half a cup of coffee in the hopes of giving herself some energy. It seemed to be helping, but not a lot.

Just as she finished prepping a travel mug of coffee for Bianca to take to work, she heard the water of the master bathroom's shower start up. She glanced at the clock on the microwave, and said aloud to Miranda, "Wow, I think it's a miracle. Your mommy got up with more than 15 minutes to kill before Patrick gets here!"

With the travel mug ready, Maggie took the whistling kettle off the stove, and poured the water into the bowl of oatmeal that sat waiting for it. "You know Munchie, if I'm not careful, I'm going to look like I actually know what I'm doing around here."

Miranda rocked back and forth in her high chair, not caring what Maggie was saying, so long as the food she could see was delivered soon.

After fanning the oatmeal for a few moments, Maggie walked over and sat down in front of Miranda to begin feeding her breakfast. Since mentioning Patrick earlier, she had been thinking about him. She knew she was going to have talk to him about everything that happened at some point, but she wasn't sure if she was up for going over it all again so soon, but she knew she had to thank him for staying with Bianca all day yesterday. For now, her biggest battle would be getting more of the oatmeal in Miranda than on her.

April 6th – 8:10 AM

Bianca padded down the staircase in her stockings, seeing no reason to put on her heels until she had to. With everything that had been going on, she hadn't had time to send out her suits to the cleaners lately, and she was getting down to just knee length skirts and jackets. The jackets she didn't mind, but the skirts meant higher heels than she normally liked, and exposing her legs, which she was not overly fond of either.

Once at the bottom of the stairs, she slipped on her shoes and headed towards the kitchen to see if Maggie and Miranda were there. The click-click-click of her heels on the wooden floor of the entryway was driving her slowly insane, but she would get used to it.

She passed through the archway to the dining room, and could immediately see Maggie sitting in front of Miranda in the kitchen, spoon feeding her breakfast to her. Maggie was smiling and chatting happily away to Miranda, who had as much food on her grinning face, as she probably had inside her tummy.

"Hey you two….you were up early this morning."

Maggie turned and looked at Bianca with a big smile on her face. "Morning sleepy head." She turned her attentions back to feeding Miranda. "I got up around 7, stopped to check-in on a certain someone, and found she was more than ready to get up for the day. So I figured why not?"

Bianca walked over to Miranda, and leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "Good morning Munchie." She stood next to her daughter, stroking her hair with her left hand, while she finally got a straight on look at Maggie. There were bags under her eyes, but not anything to abnormal for someone in a pre-med program at school. Her hair was pulled back in a pony tail, letting her get a clear look at all of Maggie's facial features. Bianca couldn't put her finger on it, but something about Maggie was just…different today.

Maggie finally felt the eyes on her and looked up at Bianca. She got a self-conscious grin and chuckled out a, "What? What are you looking at?" to her friend.

Bianca grinned and looked back down at her daughter. "Nothing…I don't know…you just seem…different today somehow."

"Different? How?" Maggie inquired as she scraped the last of the food on to a spoon for Miranda.

"I don't know…maybe 'relieved' is a good word…or 'relaxed'."

"Well, yeah, I'm kind of feeling both to tell the truth. In case you hadn't heard, it seems the big bad wolf is dead. The townspeople might feel some relief after that."

Bianca winced at the analogy, but didn't say anything. Maggie always had a tendency to deal with her problems through humor, and it appeared they were at that stage now. "Is there any coffee?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yep. And I already filled a travel mug for you to take to work with you."

"Wow, you've been the busy bee this morning haven't you?"

"Even slopped the hog." she said, as she wiped the oatmeal from around the corners of Miranda's mouth.

Bianca's jaw dropped, and her eyes went wide. "My daughter is not a hog!" After a few more seconds of astonishment, she stood up straight, took on an air of superiority, and uttered, "She is a Kane woman, if she has food on her face, it's a fashion statement."

Maggie leaned close to Miranda's ear, and faux-whispered, "Wow, she almost sounded like she bought into that herself."

Miranda giggled at Maggie's breath hitting her ear, and she threw up her hands to scratch her ear and protect it from further assaults.

Bianca smiled. She was glad to see Maggie smiling and laughing, but she couldn't tell if this was a front she was putting on or not. Somehow she was doubtful that one day of being locked in your bedroom, and a night of sleeping with your best friend would cure the hurt, pain and confusion she had been feeling not even forty-eight hours ago. "Maggie….I hate to bring it up, but….are you sure you're ok with me going back to work today? It's not too late for me to change my plans and stay home."

Maggie grinned at her. "Thanks for the concern…really….but…." her face took on a more serious tone. "I can't let this set me back…not now…not when I was just getting over everything he had done to me."

"No one would blame you if you took a few more days to yourself."

"I would. I just got into school. I'm not going to start messing things up this early, especially not because of……him."

Bianca could almost hear the venom drip off that final word. "Well…ok, but what about Miranda? Do you want me take her to work today so you can study and do your work?"

Maggie grinned and reached out with her left hand and stroked the back of the little girl's head. Miranda was smiling and kicking her legs back and forth. "If it's ok with you, I'll go ahead and resume my nanny duties, I think. I didn't realize until I saw her this morning how much she adds to my day."

Bianca smiled a warm, loving smile at the two girls. "Of course I don't have a problem with that. If you feel up to it, than you do it."

"All settled then!" Maggie looked over at the clock and got out, "And just in time since…." The buzzer for the downstairs door went off. "Patrick will be buzzing for you at any second." she finished.

Bianca walked over to Maggie and took both of her hands into hers and looked her squarely in the eyes. "He can wait a minute. I just need to know one last time…you are ok with me going?"

Maggie looked up at Bianca, who stood higher than usual in her heels. "I'll be fine…I promise. Now, you go to work and buy a company, or whatever it is you do all day."

Bianca leaned forward and planted a light kiss on Maggie's forehead, and then in turn leaned down and kissed her daughter. "Do you need me to send Patrick back after he takes me in?"

"Naw…I don't plan on going anywhere today that I can't walk to, and I need to get my homework done for class tonight. Do tell him I said hi though, and that I will talk to him very soon."

"Not a problem." Bianca started to walk out through the archway, as Maggie picked up Miranda out of her high chair so they could follow Bianca to the door. Bianca stopped and turned to look back at her friend, "You're sure?"

"GO!" Maggie bellowed as she walked up to Bianca, turned her around with her free hand and started pushing on her back.

"Fine! Fine! You don't need to shove!"

They arrived at the front door, Bianca grabbed her briefcase from the table, and her coat from the rack in the corner. She exited the apartment and pushed the button for the elevator as Maggie stood with Miranda in the door way and waved "bye-bye" to mommy as Bianca got on the elevator. They watched as the doors closed and Bianca said quickly, "I'll call and check on you later!"

The elevator gone, Maggie shut the front door and turned to walk to her apartment. As she did so, she looked lost in thought for a moment, finally turning her head to Miranda. "You know…I just realized your mommy's wearing a skirt today. She should do that more often…her legs look good in skirts."

The girls walked off through the dining room for a fun filled day of studying.

April 16th - Evening

"You're sure about this?" Bianca asked.

"I'm here aren't I?"

"I know, but…it just seems so soon."

"So soon? I can't stop living my life Bianca just because my psychopath ex-boyfriend is dead. Never mind it's been almost 2 weeks now. I have to do something besides go to school and hide in my apartment all the time."

"I know, but …."

"I'm sorry for Ryan, and I'm sorry for everyone Jonathan hurt, but that's all I feel at this point."

"Ok ok."

"Besides, Patrick is so excited we are finally coming over for dinner. It's all he's talked about for two days."

The cab pulled up in front of the address they had given the driver. Bianca paid him as Maggie stepped on to the sidewalk holding Miranda in her arms.

Patrick appeared as if from nowhere. "Ah, I am so glad you two made it." He looked over the cab with an arched eyebrow. "I still wish you would have let me come and pick you up."

"Not on your own time you don't." Bianca said as she walked to the trunk with the cabbie to retrieve Miranda's stroller.

"Yes, but Miss Montgomery…"

Bianca shot him a look "How many times do I have to tell you, Miss Montgomery during work hours! I'll let that one slide, but you have to call me Bianca in the off hours."

Maggie chuckled and elbowed Patrick. "Gee, this sounds familiar."

Patrick took the stroller and opened it up while mumbling, "You two are going to be the death of me."

The quartet rode up in the elevator, Bianca and Maggie chatting about how gorgeous Patrick's neighborhood was and Patrick would mumble an affirmative, "mmhmm" every so often.

Bianca and Maggie both leaned backwards, and looked at each other behind Patrick's back with puzzled looks about his sudden silence. Finally they leaned forward again, and joined him in his silence.

The elevator finally dinged, notifying them that their ride was at an end. The foursome exited the elevator and walked down the hall a short distance to Patrick's apartment door. He took a deep breath and muttered under his breath, "Here we go."

He unlocked the door on a spacious apartment, larger than either girl imagined, and Patrick called out, "Giulia. Sono qui."

A very tall, slender, dark headed woman walked out of a room into the entry hallway, and immediately the girls were assaulted by a flurry of Italian words. They were both grabbed by the shoulders and kissed on both cheeks. Miranda had her cheeks pulled on until it seemed her eyes would bug out.

Through a think accent, Maggie heard her name and it was followed by an onslaught of words, which Patrick tried to keep up with in translating. "Maggie…it is a pleasure to meet you…Patrick has told me all about you…you are more beautiful than he said…that is my husband for you, too somber and not enough zest for life…I am going to keep talking, because I know he feels obligated to translate every word…".

Giulia turned her head and blew Patrick an exaggerated kiss, which made him chuckle. She turned now to look at Bianca, and Patrick said something to his wife that made her smile broadly. She began speaking French to Bianca, which seemed to relieve her a great deal. Though the words were similar, Patrick still translated for Maggie's sake so she wouldn't feel left out.

"I actually caught one or two words!" Maggie said, beaming a proud smile.

Patrick smiled at her. "Ah, so you are not as slow as I first thought!"

Maggie suspected he was starting to enjoy being punched in the arm for his comments.

After a brief tour of the apartment, everyone gathered in the kitchen, while Giulia finished preparing dinner. Bianca presented two bottles of some very expensive wine she had brought with her to Giulia, who was visibly impressed. She showed them to Patrick who in turn muttered something along the lines of "dear lord." Maggie guessed they must be good to rattle Patrick, but to her, wine was wine.

Patrick opened the bottles while Giulia stirred the pasta. She looked at Maggie and Bianca, muttered something in Italian which made Patrick laugh. He turned to look at the pair from Pine Valley and filled them in. "She is concerned that you two don't eat well, you are so skinny and short." Giulia said a few more things in Italian that Patrick translated, though he grimaced and stepped back from Maggie. "She is not sure how you will ever have a child with those hips."

Maggie smiled a sweet, yet unsettling, smile at Patrick. "Tell her I appreciate her concern, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it."

Patrick was concerned by the smile, but translated anyway. Giulia laughed and said something to him that made him turn and walk towards the cabinet across the room. On his way there, he was treated to another punch in the arm. He stopped, looked at Maggie, and asked, "Could you at least change arms once in awhile so I don't bruise?"

"Nope."

There was barely any table visible under the amount of food that had been laid out for the honored guests. Bianca and Maggie sat across from each other, Miranda in her mother's lap, while Patrick and Giulia sat at either end of the table.

As they all got settled, Giulia served her and Patrick modest helpings, but gave the girls helpings that almost overflowed off their plates, and made their eyes bug out. They looked from the plates, to each other, and back down to their plates. Giulia repeated, "Mangi! Mangi!" over and over, which Patrick told the girls meant, "Eat! Eat!"

Bianca smiled and said to Patrick, "So, I doubt she is going to want to hear I am trying to watch my figure?"

"I'm not sure that sentence exists in the Italian language actually." he replied.

As the food and wine got started, the conversation began to flow as it does when people break bread together. Patrick and Bianca kept trying to translate everything being said, but it was hard to keep up with so many streams of conversation going on. Maggie finally told them not to worry, and only translate what was being said to her directly.

Miranda tried taking a bite of every food item that passed over her mother's place, but got more sauce on her face than anything. Giulia finally stepped over and asked Bianca if she could hold the little girl for awhile.

"Now you've you done it! She will be wanting to be have another one! We've already raised two." Patrick moaned.

"How did the two of you meet?" Maggie inquired.

"Well, she tells the story much more fully than I, but since she can't relay it in English….it was when I was in the military, I was in Italy for a while on assignment. I saw her from across a room, and…well, you can imagine the rest of the story. We have been together ever since."

Giulia asked Patrick what was being discussed in French, and he replied. She smiled and looked from Bianca to Maggie and finally back to Bianca. She asked a question in French that made Bianca immediately blush and get suddenly fascinated with twirling some pasta around her fork.

Maggie noticed, and looked to Patrick for a translation, but saw that he had tensed up. "What did she say?"

"Um…nothing, nothing, don't worry about it."

Bianca finally replied to Giulia, in a very lengthy dose of French. Maggie had been in France long enough now she had learned a few words, and she picked out for sure both their names, "couple", "knows" and "future". She wanted to ask what exactly what had been asked and replied, but decided to drop it for now.

Through Bianca's whole answer, Giulia had just nodded in the affirmative, and glanced at Maggie every so often. She would just smile back, but she had to admit that it did make her a bit uneasy.

Dinner slowly returned to what passed for normal, but Maggie made a mental note to follow up on this particular part of the conversation at a later time.

Dinner over, and the table cleared, everyone was again gathered in the kitchen. Bianca holding Miranda, Giulia rinsing off dishes and Maggie bringing in the left over items from the dining room.

Once the table was cleared, and the dishes stacked, Giulia again took Miranda from Bianca, and they got into a deep conversation about children being raised in Paris. Feeling out of place, Maggie went to see where Patrick had gotten off to.

She spotted him on the small balcony outside the living room, and went out to see what he was up to. She noticed as she opened the door, his left hand quickly shot down to his side, but she didn't make much of it.

"What are you doing out here?"

Patrick shrugged, but said nothing.

"Patrick…are you ok?"

He nodded "yes", but still said nothing.

Maggie leaned on the railing, a suspicion starting to sink in. "You know…you can't hold it in forever."

Patrick opened his mouth, a massive exhale escaping, along with cigarette smoke.

Maggie shook her head and laughed. "You're hiding it from Giulia aren't you?"

"She thinks I quit years ago, but I still allow myself one day, and only one a day, and it is always after dinner."

"And you hide it from her?"

"Yes." he said, as he retrieved an ashtray out of the plotted plant in the corner. He snubbed out the cigarette he had in his left hand, and put the ashtray back. "She had me quit for my health…and she is right, but…I just hold on to that last one a day habit for memories."

"Patrick, Patrick, Patrick…I'm so ashamed of you."

"Please don't tell her, ok?"

A grin crossed Maggie's face. "Ok, I won't….but you have to do something for me."

Patrick hung his head, and asked in a defeated tone, "What?"

"Tell me what the conversation in French was at dinner, after I asked how you two had met."

Patrick sighed. "I figured that was it." He looked back over his shoulder, and saw that Bianca and his wife were seated on the couches, far away from the doors, so they would not over hear this conversation. "Giulia…..wanted to know how you and Bianca became a couple."

"Yeah…that's what I thought it was."

"Bianca informed her you were not yet a couple, but maybe someday, who knows in the future."

"And….did she say if she wanted us to be a couple."

Patrick stared out at the city for a moment. "Should I be the one to tell you that, or should she?"

Maggie turned around, leaned back to rest on the railing, and placed her hands behind her to support herself. She stared through the glass in the doors at Bianca, who was facing her direction on the couch. "I….I know what she has said in the past, but…so much more has happened…." Bianca spotted Maggie looking in and smiled at her, Maggie returned the gesture. Maggie again turned around to look out over the city with Patrick.

Patrick turned his head and stared at Maggie. "You love her….don't you?"

"With all my heart."

"Then, why haven't you done anything about it?"

"It's….it's complicated Patrick."

"What is so complicated? You love her, she obviously loves you…why not become a couple?"

"Because…I don't know what type of love it is. And…I don't know if I'm gay, or if it's just her. There's so much I don't know."

"Do you really have to know more than that you love her?"

Maggie turned her head to look at Patrick. "What did she say Patrick? Please tell me."

Patrick sighed, and pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one.

"I thought you had only one a day."

"Normally yes, but this is what you do to me. You drive me to two!"

"Patrick, look at it this way, she said it…out loud…if I could speak French, I would already know what was said, but I don't. So all you are doing is repeating what was said in front of me."

Patrick took another drag off of his cigarette. He looked down at it and studied the ember on the end. "She said…..she said that she hopes someday you two will be a couple, but that you were the one who had to let her know the time was right."

Maggie nodded. "Thank you Patrick…and your cigarette secret is safe with me." She moved over and wrapped both her arms around him. "Your daughters must have turned out to be wonderful people…I would like to meet them someday."

Patrick wrapped his right arm around Maggie's shoulders. "No you wouldn't. Imagine my wife and I combined into one person…they are like whirling dervishes of destruction!"

Maggie laughed and squeezed Patrick tighter. "I couldn't have hoped to have found a better friend when I moved here." She let go and stepped back. "Now….what's this about you and the military?"

Bianca and Maggie stood in the front hall saying their good-byes to Giulia, as Patrick had already headed down to get them a cab. She reluctantly gave Miranda back to Bianca, and hugged them both in one big hug. She said some things to Bianca in French, that again made her blush, especially when she had nodded her head towards Maggie. Maggie tried to pretend she hadn't noticed.

It was then Maggie's turn for the hugs and kisses. Giulia said something in French to her that made Bianca's eyes light up. "She says it was a pleasure meeting you, and hopes that we will both come again. She also hopes that Patrick's smoking on the balcony didn't bother you too much. He's so cute how he thinks she doesn't know."

Maggie got embarrassed and laughed. "Um…could you tell her I had a lovely time, and that I have no idea what she is talking about?"

Bianca relayed the message and Giulia just laughed and winked at Maggie once she had heard it all. Again Bianca translated for her. "Don't worry, I am not mad at him. He gave up his serious habit for me, I think I can ignore his one a day, but try not to drive him to a second one again."

Maggie looked at Bianca with some astonishment. "Damn! She's good!"

Down on the street, Bianca and Maggie said their goodbyes to Patrick and thanked him for a lovely evening. As Bianca was having the stroller put in the trunk, Patrick hugged Maggie. "Think about it….are you happy with this…or do you want more?" he whispered in her ear.

She whispered back, "I'll think on it…promise. Thank you Patrick." After she broke away, and was getting in the cab, she stopped for a brief moment and turned to Patrick. "By the way…I didn't tell her, but she knows about the smoking."

As the girls drove away in their cab, they turned to wave to Patrick. Maggie commented, "Wow…you can see how pale that made him even from here!"


	3. Chapter 3

May 23rd – Evening

Bianca hated when she worked past 5:30, and now it was getting close to an hour past that. She wanted to get home to Miranda, as she was all she could think about during the day. Well…and maybe another person as well. She gathered up her papers, slipped them in her briefcase and turned off her desk lamp before heading out.

She had already sent her assistant, Aurélia, home for the night, so it was just her in the office. This caused her to be a bit shocked when someone knocked on her office door, just as she reached for it. She opened it to find Ethan Cambias standing on the other side.

"I know. Last person you expect to see?...I need your help. I won't lose Kendall."

After getting over the initial shock of even seeing him standing there, his words began to sink in. "Well first off….'hello'. Secondly, what do you mean 'lose Kendall'? What happened now?"

"Can I come in to discuss this?"

"Well…" Bianca looked at her watch, "actually, no. I'm heading home, but you can come with me if you want."

"Ok…probably a better setting anyway, as this will take some time."

Bianca walked out of her office and closed the door behind her. "Fine…but could you wait here for a minute? I need to drop some papers off down the hall and I will come back for you."

"Of course." He replied, and Ethan took a seat on the love seat in Bianca's outer office as she left to go down the hall. Once she was at a safe distance, she pulled out her phone and called down to Patrick so he wouldn't be surprised by the arrival of the surprise visitor. Then she placed a call to Maggie.

"Bon jour!" came the chipper voice at the other end of the line.

Bianca smiled. "Don't say that unless you are prepared to a hold a full conversation in French."

"Caller ID dummy, I knew it was you. What's up? Are you delayed again?"

"No…well….yes….I don't know. I'm bringing someone home with me and thought I had better warn you."

"Oh! Did you go to a bar and pick up a hot girl?" she asked in a teasing voice.

Bianca smiled at the ease Maggie joked about her sexuality. "Oh they're hot, but this isn't exactly a girl. Ethan just showed up at my office door out of the blue wanting to talk to me about Kendall."

"Um….ok….I'll set another spot for dinner and change into something that doesn't look like I have been writing a paper for two days in it….since that is exactly what I have on."

"Thanks…..Maggie." Bianca said, catching herself almost saying 'honey'.

"No problem! Oh! And you better warn Patrick before you get downstairs!"

"Mind reader! I already did…see you in a bit."

Down in the parking garage, Bianca grinned at the sight of Patrick as she and Ethan walked to the limo. Patrick was standing at attention with the door open, and was even wearing his chauffeur's cap, which he hated, and only wore when Maggie would tease him about it.

She allowed Ethan to get in first. As he did, she and Patrick shared a wink. He was quickly becoming more like family than an employee, but with Ethan about, they were silently agreeing to play their assigned roles of employer and employee.

Ethan had taken a seat on the long bench as there was only room for one on the main seat, due to the presence of Miranda's car seat. "Sorry about that." Bianca said. "I just leave it in here all the time, as I never know when I will need to take her some place, and it is a real pain to take in and out."

Ethan smiled his crooked grin. "No problem. How is my little cousin?"

"She's fine. Maggie looks after her during the day, then I take over in the evenings when she heads off to class."

Ethan looked down at his trousers and picked off some imaginary lint. "So….you and Maggie are…."

"The very best of friends." Bianca said curtly, indicating he should watch what subjects he inquired about. "Are all the crews back on the Miranda Center as promised?"

Now it was Ethan's turn to feel the stab of an unwelcome question, and to realize that she did have the Kane instinct of going for the jugular. "Yes. They are all back as promised."

"Good. So, now what is this about Kendall that you felt the need to fly all the way to Paris to talk about it?"

"Well…" Ethan flashed a look towards Patrick. "Excuse me, driver? Could you put up the privacy screen please?"

"Of course sir." replied Patrick as the screen lifted into place.

Bianca frowned slightly, but said nothing as Ethan turned to face her again. "You were saying?" she inquired.

"Well, it seems Kendall is going to marry my father to help him get his gambling license back, and then they will sue me for my half of Cambias."

Bianca wasn't sure, but she felt as if she had just stepped into a whole other world. A world she had left behind when she and Maggie had departed for Paris. Now, it was as if she was right back in the thick of the craziness that was Pine Valley.

Ethan stood in the kitchen, his suit jacket and tie off, his sleeves rolled up and was pacing while drinking some white wine, talking with Bianca. "You have to help me with her Bianca."

Bianca was sitting at the butchers block with Miranda in her lap. "I don't have to do it Ethan, but I will. If you love her as much as you say you do, and she's making all these crazy decisions, then yes, I will talk to her and see what I can do for you."

Just then, Bianca's cell phone started ringing. "Hello? Mom? Mom…what? What? Slow down…slow down…hold on a minute." She stood up and walked over to Ethan. "Could you take her into Maggie for me? It's my mother and she's rambling something about a wedding and a banyan tree." She handed her daughter over to Ethan, which he gladly accepted. Bianca walked out of the room with her cell phone, repeatedly saying "Slow down mom!"

Ethan walked over to Maggie's room, and before knocking, read the sign that hung there that said "La Hutte de Plaisir"…"The Pleasure Hut". Ethan smiled and looked over his shoulder at Bianca, who was standing in the dining room. He mumbled "'The best of friends' huh?" and chuckled. He knocked on Maggie's door and asked if he could enter. Once he heard a "sure", he walked on in.

The room was large, and eclectic in its decoration. From a lava lamp on the bed stand, to the Pachinko machine in the corner, the room screamed young American. The distinctly French furniture though leant the room a bit of the city that surrounded this American's oasis.

"Sorry to disturb your studying…." Ethan began as he walked over to her with Miranda, "but Bianca's on the phone with her mother and asked me to bring Miranda in to you."

"Oh lord, if it's Erica, this could go on for awhile." She stood up and took Miranda from Ethan's arms. Miranda quickly cuddled up to Maggie and nestled her head in the crook of Maggie's neck. Maggie smiled a gentle grin and rested her head against Miranda's.

Ethan slid his hands in his pockets and smiled at the two ladies in front of him. "She really seems to have taken a liking to you."

"Yeah, well we spend just a wee bit of time together." Maggie said sarcastically, as she sat back down at her desk. Maggie nodded with her head towards her bed. "You can have a seat if you want, she'll probably be a little while."

"Thanks." replied Ethan as he sat down at the end closest to Maggie. "So…things are going well for you over here?"

"Yeah…school's going well, I've got these swanky digs to live in and I get to hang out with the two most beautiful girls on the face of the planet everyday!" she said as she turned her head and kissed the top of, the now drowsy, Miranda's head.

Ethan caught the plural form of her comment about the 'beautiful girls', but smiled and kept his thoughts to himself.

Just then Bianca came storming into Maggie's room. "Ok everyone, battle stations….my mother has lost her mind!"

Maggie and Ethan looked at each other, and then to Bianca. Maggie asked, "This is news to you? I always thought you were bit quicker on the uptake…."

"Oh no, this is a whole new level for her. Ethan…could you call the pilot and see how soon the jet could be ready to leave?"

"Do I need to leave already?"

"Oh no, not like that. I do…and Miranda…and you….and Maggie if you would like to come."

Maggie and Ethan looked at each other again, and then back to Bianca. "Um..Bianca…would you mind joining us in our reality and tell us just a few more details?"

Bianca took a deep breath. "Uncle Jack 'kidnapped' Mom to talk some sense into her, he took her to Boca Raton by yacht, where they found a gorgeous banyan tree and now mom wants to get married under it and wants all of us there so they can get married as soon as possible." She let her deep breath out.

Ethan stood up, made a little bow to Maggie and Miranda, and turned back to Bianca. "I think I'll just call the pilot. I caught Boca Raton in there…that should be enough information." He patted Bianca on the shoulder as he passed her.

"So….can you come?" Bianca asked.

"I wish I could…really…we've only been waiting for this marriage for years now, but I have got to finish this paper." she said with a frown. "You aren't upset are you?"

Bianca lifted her hands and pushed locks of hair behind both ears. "No! Of course not! Leave it to my mom to spring this on us with no warning!

Maggie stood up and walked over to Bianca. "You're sure you aren't mad?"

"Disappointed? Yeah, of course I am. But mad? How can I be mad when it's homework?" She pulled Maggie into a light hug so as not crush Miranda, and Maggie returned it, one-armed. After breaking the hug, Bianca asked, "Could I impose on you for say an hour to help me pack though? I have got to leave tonight!"

Maggie smiled an evil grin. "Is it even possible to get one Kane woman ready in an hour, let alone two?" she asked with a nod towards the baby in her arms.

Bianca rolled her eyes. "Come on." And with that, all of them exited Maggie's room.

"You are only going to be gone a few days Bianca! You have enough clothes packed to move back, and…..wait a minute…is there something you aren't telling me?" Maggie bellowed from the closet of the main bedroom.

"No, but with my mom you have to plan for every possible contingency!"

Maggie walked out of the closet, more clothes in hand. "True! I grabbed your black bikini…just in case. Florida and all that, she might want to go to the beach or something." She paused long enough to throw some more clothes in the luggage. "Man…now I wish I could go, but I have to hand that paper in first thing Wednesday. Of course after that, THEN I have free time!" she said while throwing her hands up in frustration.

Bianca was bent over one of her suitcases, zipping it up. "I know, but nothing can be done. Even if I sent the jet back for you, you wouldn't arrive in time." she said with a frown.

There was a soft knock at the door. "Bianca…whenever you're ready. Your driver is downstairs, and the jet is ready for us."

"Thanks you take one of these bags down for me?"

"Only one? It looks like your ready for an around the world trip!"

"What can I tell ya Ethan…that's the Kane women for you." Maggie piped in.

Ethan groaned under the weight of a bag in each hand, but he made it out the door. "I'll see you downstairs." he said over his shoulder.

"Are you sure no one's head is going to explode when you arrive with him?" Maggie asked.

"I hope not, but he seems to really love Kendall, and this whole crazy plan she has with Zach….I have to see what I can do Maggie."

"That's our Saint Bianca. Anyway…you have room for one more small bag?"

Bianca looked around puzzled. "Didn't we get everything put away?"

"You did, but I have gifts for everyone that I have been slowly buying for when the wedding was supposed to happen. Can you just take them with you?"

"Of course! We'll just grab them when we get downstairs." Bianca tilted her head and pouted a bit. "You realize….this will be the longest we have gone without seeing each other since we got here."

Maggie looked down and fiddled with the zipper on one of the bags. "Yeah…not sure how I will feed myself with the language barrier." she said with a soft chuckle.

Bianca walked over and pulled her into a big hug. "I need a big one this time so I don't go through withdrawl."

"You're trying to make me cry aren't you?"

"NO! I…" she pulled back in the hug so she could look at Maggie, but kept her arms around her. "Well…since we got here, and got the whole living arrangement problem settled…I've just gotten so used to seeing you everyday. It will be rough going without."

Maggie blushed. "Me too…this has been really good for me Bianca. I feel like I'm getting back to healthy finally."

Bianca pulled her close for another hug, but this time nothing was said. Both girls closed their eyes, and tears began to well up. They stood like this for several moments before it was finally broken. Each reached up with the backs of their hands to brush away their own tears while laughing in embarrassment.

"Boy, aren't we mature…can't go a couple days without each other!" said Maggie.

"And that's all it is…a couple days. I promise."

"Good! I would hate to have to hunt you down!"

Her tears gone, Bianca bent over to pick up a suitcase and saw her briefcase lying on the bed. "Oh! Could you do me a favor on Wednesday? After you turn in your paper of course."

"Sure. What do you need?"

"Can you drop some papers I had to sign off at the office?"

"Oh yeah, not a problem! And it will give me a chance to harass Patrick at work!" she said with a chirp. "Now, you go on downstairs, I'll grab Miranda out of her crib, and you'll be ready to attend the tenth Erica Kane wedding!"

Bianca closed her eyes and shook her head. "It's amazing how you can make everything sound so normal."

May 25th – Afternoon

Maggie was strolling down the sidewalk near the Cambias building. She had dropped the papers off like Bianca had wanted, and Patrick said he would meet her down the street at the coffee shop after he had run an errand. Since she had only ever driven in and out of the Cambias building, in the back of a limo, she had thought to take the train this time so she would be to actually get out and look around for once. Now she was just taking a slow stroll down the street, looking in the windows of the small boutiques that lined either side of the avenue.

As she stopped to look in the window of a jewelry store, she thought she saw someone staring at her out of the corner of her eye. When she turned to look, they were gone. She just chalked it up to her imagination, and continued down the street.

It was a gorgeous day, just a few clouds, and not too hot, or too cold. The perfect day for a walk. With her paper turned in, she had decided this was the perfect way to spend a Bianca & Miranda-free afternoon. She really had not had much of a chance to explore the city, and she still occasionally had to remind herself she actually lived in Paris now. Her! Maggie Stone! Living in Paris! She grinned for a moment as she looked around. "And that teacher, Mrs. Branbridge, said in third grade that those Stone girls would never get anywhere in life. HA! Take that you old battle axe!"

She stopped to look in another window. Just as the grin had appeared suddenly, it now disappeared. Though the reflection in the window was her own, it made her think. "Oh Frankie….if only you were here…". She was shocked out of her daydream as she again felt as if she was being watched, but when she turned her head, no one was there except normal pedestrians passing her by. No one was staring at her as far as she could see. She shrugged her shoulders and moved on down the street.

When she reached the coffee shop, she got in line figuring she would go ahead and get a latte in her before Patrick arrived. All the time she was in line she kept trying to work out the words to place the order. She had slowly been picking up more and more words, but they still did not come naturally to her. And with Bianca gone, it was a little disconcerting being in a city with this many people, and still feeling alone and isolated because she did not speak the language.

When her turn at the counter arrived, she blurted out what she thought was an order for a latte, but the barista looked at her perplexed. She tried it again. He still looked at her puzzled. From somewhere behind her a voice said something in French, the barista smiled and began making a latte.

"You were very close to having it correct Maggie, it's just the enunciation needs a little more work" said the voice.

Every hair on her neck stood on end. She slowly turned, knowing who it was, but still hoping she was wrong. She looked up slightly at the short, pixie like hair-do, the deep dark eyes and that smirk of a grin she had always wanted to slap off her face. "Hello…..Lena."


	4. Chapter 4

May 25th – Early Afternoon

Maggie's head filled with cotton. She could hear things that sounded like voices, and she could make out forms of people moving. What was in front of her though was in crystal clear focus. Lena Kundera.

She hadn't seen Lena since she had left to go back to Poland to be with her sickly mother. Though Bianca and she had parted as girlfriends, the distance finally got to be too much, and they broke up. Maggie had never said anything, but it didn't exactly choke her up. Sure, she was sad for Bianca, but she had never exactly been a member of the 'Lena Fan Club'.

It wasn't even that she so much had anything against Lena, it was more…who was she kidding, she disliked Lena…a lot. From the association with Michael Cambias to making Bianca choose her family or even her telling her she had to come to Poland to keep their relationship going. It all irked Maggie, but, if you pressed her to answer, there was probably a dash of jealousy also.

It wasn't until Lena smiled at her, and moved forward, that she came out of her stupor. Her vision returned to normal, and sounds once again flooded into her ears. Not sure of what Lena was up to, she stepped aside and saw that she was grabbing up two lattes and paying for them. She turned and handed one to Maggie. "Over your shock of seeing me yet?" she asked.

Maggie took the latte from her and said, "Getting there."

Lena smiled, and her eyes lingered with Maggie's for a moment. She broke the look and glanced around the café. "There's a table over there if you would care to join me. I would love to catch up with you."

"I guess I can…." she said, glancing at her watch. "I'm supposed to be meeting a friend here in a little bit."

"Of course. I would just like catch up on what has happened to both of you." She gestured with a hand towards the tables and led the way to a couple of empty ones towards the front. Maggie took a seat at the second table in from the front door, and sat with her back to the entrance, Lena sat opposite her. "I had no idea you were even in Paris!" Lena exclaimed excitedly as she settled in her chair.

Maggie wrapped both her hands around her cup, and stared at it, refusing to make eye contact. "Really? So you just happened in to me walking down the street?" she asked, her tone suspicious.

The question was innocent enough on the surface, but Lena caught the implication. "I am working as a financial officer for a company that has offices in several countries. I am in Paris for a few days of training on our new computer system, and our offices are just down the street." She reached for her purse and fished around inside of it "Ah…here is one of my business cards. It is in French, but it shows the address."

Maggie took the business card and gave it only a cursory glance before shoving it in the pocket of her school bag. Sure enough, even in French, she recognized the address, it was just two doors down from the Cambias building. "So…I take it your mother must have gotten better if you are working again." Maggie scooted her chair forward, feeling the one directly behind her hitting the back of hers as someone sat down.

"She did get better, but either way I needed a job again to pay all her bills."

"So here you are…" Maggie began spinning her cup around in her hands, still staring at it, "in Paris…a new job…your mom's better…and only a few doors down from Cambias…"

Lena smiled. "Running into you was pure chance Maggie. I knew Bianca was working at Cambias, but I had not planned on calling her. Too much time…too much…everything." She paused and stared at her cup. "You know though…I had no idea you were here until I saw you on the street. I followed you for a little ways not believing my eyes."

It clicked in Maggie's head finally that she had been watched on the street. She lifted her cup to take a sip. "Well, sorry to break it to you, but Bianca is gone for a few days to Florida…" she took a long drink of her latte. "Erica is finally marrying Jack."

"Really? That is wonderful!"

"So unless you are going to be around past the weekend, you won't be running into her."

"Like I said Maggie….I wasn't going to call her. I…I have someone else now."

Maggie cocked an eyebrow, not sure whether to believe her. "Really? Tell me about them." She purposefully left the gender out since she remembered Lena had said she was bisexual.

"Her name is Tola." Lena smiled broadly. "It means 'priceless'. She works in the same building as me, but in a different division. We clicked instantly and have been together now for four months."

"Always going for the co-workers huh?" she asked, with an obvious indication to how Lena and Bianca had both worked at Enchantment when they first met.

"It does seem to work out that way, yes."

Maggie nodded and went back to spinning her cup.

"So….why did you not go to Florida with Bianca?"

"School work. I had a paper to turn in today."

"I would have thought you could have arranged something so you could go with your partner to her mother's wedding."

Maggie stopped spinning the cup. "Well….that was about as subtle as a hammer up side the head."

Lena smiled and took a drink.

"For your information, she is not my 'partner'. We are still just friends."

"I see…I just assumed…well…most people don't move to a foreign country just to be with their 'friend'."

"Some….things… happened to me, and I felt like this was the best place until I could get my balance back. Also, the timing worked out well. I had just gotten out of a very unhealthy relationship, Bianca was moving here with Miranda, and so along I came. Now I go to school and watch over Miranda, so there are a lot of reasons for me to be here."

Lena was intrigued by the 'things' that had happened to her, but did not feel comfortable pushing it any further. "Miranda…how is she?"

"She's a little over a year old and about as cute as can be."

Lena smiled. "I am glad she is doing well. As for you and Bianca, I am sorry I assumed. I am sure you can see how I would reach that conclusion with everything that happened back in Pine Valley and then finding you just outside the building she works in."

"I was just dropping off some papers for her. The trip was very last minute." She looked up and studied Lena for a moment. "What do you mean by 'everything that happened back in Pine Valley'?" Maggie asked before taking a sip of her drink.

"Well….your jealousy of Bianca and I."

As was Maggie's tendency, she nearly spit some of her latte across the table, but kept her mouth shut. "Man, I have got to stop eating and drinking when having these discussions." She grabbed a napkin and wiped her mouth with it. "I was not jealous of you two."

Lena laughed so hard she had to cover her mouth. "Oh please Maggie! If there was such a thing as a real stare of death, I would have been killed many times over!"

Even Maggie had to laugh at that. "Maybe I just didn't like you."

"I am familiar with that gaze from others Maggie, yours was very much a look of jealousy. I am sure you would recognize it…as I looked at you with that same stare many times."

Maggie was puzzled by this comment. "I saw you shoot looks at me, but I always just thought it was hatred."

"No…honestly Maggie, I always liked you. If it hadn't been for Bianca, we might have been friends under other circumstances. But I was always very jealous of your relationship with Bianca."

Maggie was shocked by this statement. "Why in the world would you be jealous of our relationship? We are just friends."

"Because you were still number one in her heart Maggie. She never got over her feelings for you, and if you had ever given her a sign that you were interested in her….I am fairly certain I would have been gone from her life."

Maggie gulped. "You…you can't really think that can you? She loved you. There is no way I could have broken that."

"I think you would be surprised Maggie. I don't think you would have had to do very much to convince her."

Maggie took a deep breath, her voice shaky, and asked, "Then why did she reject me….twice?"

Lena's jaw dropped slowly, but no words came out.

Maggie felt the blood rushing to her cheeks in a sign of embarrassment. She looked down at her hands, and there was a long silence before she continued in a voice, not much above a whisper. "It was the day Bianca was thinking of leaving the country because of everything happening at the murder trial for Michael. I was rushing out…well, more like running actually, and almost ran you down. You gave me a suspicious look, like you thought something had just happened between Bianca and I?" Lena nodded in the affirmative. "Well, something did...I'd just kissed her, totally on impulse, just before you got there...I was afraid she was going to leave for Europe with you and..."

"I knew something had happened. I could feel the tension in the room and Bianca was clearly upset about something. And you...you were...what was it Bianca always said? 'freaked out'..."

Maggie chuckled. "You don't know the half of it. I kept replaying that kiss over and over again in my mind and, while I was distracted with those thoughts, I backed out of my parking spot right into Jamie...and then...then I…well…I tried to prove some things to myself with him." She took a long sip of her drink.

"Trying to prove to yourself that you were who you always claimed to be? Defining yourself as a straight girl? That can't still be how you're trying to define yourself, Maggie. Maybe it is, if you shared only that one moment, but…"

"Well…then there was the second time she and I talked about us."

Lena threw her head back in a laugh. When she looked at Maggie again, she could see the anger in her eyes. "I am sorry Maggie, I really am. I am not laughing at you, I am laughing at myself. I had no clue."

Maggie's expression eased some. "That's ok. It is kind of funny when you think about it. You thought she would run into my arms…so did I."

Lena moved her cup to the side and leaned forward, resting on her forearms. She asked, in a soft, encouraging voice, "When was the second time?"

"Last summer. You…" she started spinning her coffee cup again and staring at it, "you and she were still together. We had been playing a drinking game called 'Truth or Dare', and one thing led to another, and…and I told her I thought I was in love with her." She stopped spinning the cup, but continued to stare at it. "Which…I know was wrong of me Lena, but both times…it was just so spur of the moment…"

Lena smiled and leaned further forward, placing her right hand on Maggie's left. "It's ok Maggie…really. I'm not upset. I'm not upset you kissed her on impulse, and I'm not upset you told her you loved her. That's what love is, that's the core of it, you no longer control what is happening. If you felt it for her at those moments, and you did what was in your heart, then who am I to say you were wrong for doing it?"

Maggie looked from Lena's hand to her face and studied her for a moment. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Were you this easy going when you were with Bianca, and I just didn't notice, or did this happen since you left Pine Valley?"

Lena retracted her hand and smiled a softer smile. "As I already said Maggie, I think if we had met under other circumstances, we could have been friends. We just always felt like adversaries because we both were in love with the same girl."

Maggie heaved a sigh. "If only I felt it was that clearly defined."

Lena's smile turned to more of a smirk. "You can not tell me you are still confused about her! Not after this long."

Maggie took a drink of her latte and said nothing.

Lena lowered her head and shook it, mumbling something in Polish. She looked back at Maggie. "Do you or do you not have feelings for her?"

"I love her…I just don't know how I love her."

Lena leaned her head back in frustration, and then leaning forward again, she locked eyes with Maggie. "Is it because you still find men attractive?"

Maggie leaned back in her chair, not sure of what to make of what Lena was doing. "P..partially."

"And do you think admitting you love Bianca would be announcing you were gay?"

"Yeah, I suppose that's part of it."

Lena arched her eyebrows in an expression of disbelief. "Maggie…have you never heard of the word 'bisexual'?"

"Of course I have…" she said with an exasperated tone.

Lena cut her off, quickly firing back. "Then why do you feel loving Bianca would automatically make you 'gay'? You could be in a loving relationship with a woman for years and still be attracted to men. Just because you are with one at this time does not close all the doors." Lena leaned back in her chair some. "Don't forget, I was with one man and hitting on another when I feel for Bianca."

Maggie sneered at the thought of Michael Cambias. "Not the best case study Lena."

Lena's mouth narrowed into a thin line as that comment did sting some. "I know….all I am trying to say Maggie is…sexuality is fluid, ever changing. Like anything in life, it is not a black and white subject. Just because I do prefer women doesn't mean I don't still look at the occasional man. For instance, there is a very handsome middle aged man sitting behind you right now. Just because I am with Tola, it doesn't mean I don't look at men still. And just because you would be with Bianca doesn't mean you would forever be locked into that." Lena sighed, relaxing her face, and her voice at the same time. "Maggie, society is the one who makes and issues the labels. If your heart feels a certain way, why should you care about what the rest of the world will think, or call you?"

Maggie started drumming her fingers on the table and screwed her face up in concentration.

Lena felt uncomfortable under this stare and shifted uneasily in her chair. Finally she asked, "What? What is it?"

Maggie continued to stare for a moment. "I am trying to figure out, number one why I should listen to you and number two, why your advice is actually making sense to me."

"Because, Maggie, I only want what's best for Bianca, and that, no matter how much you fight it, is you." Lena looked at her watch. "Ah….I have to get back to the office for another round of training." Lena stood up and collected her things.

Maggie stood up to bid her farewell. "Thanks Lena. I can honestly say when I woke up this morning, I did not expect to be getting advice on my love life from you of all people."

"Maggie, I….I know this couldn't have been easy for you….to sit down with me I mean."

"I've done more painful things, I promise." she said with a crooked smile.

Lena cocked her head to one side and smiled. She spread her arms slightly. "Maggie, may I….can I give you a hug?"

"Promise you don't have a knife in one of your hands?" she said with a nervous giggle, her eyes darting back and forth between Lena's palms.

Lena put her arms around Maggie and hugged her tightly. She put her lips near Maggie's ear and whispered, "We both know Bianca is loyal...to a fault even. I know she did love  
me, in her way, as much as she could. But I was never the love of her life. That's you, Maggie. It was always you. Once you accept that, you can accept yourself."

Maggie broke the hug and looked into Lena's face, trying to decipher if she was sincere. It appeared she was. "What….do you…do you have any messages for Bianca?"

Lena became straight faced, and almost sad. "I tell you what Maggie….why don't we just agree she never needs to know today ever happened? I won't tell if you don't. Agreed?"

Looking deep into Lena's eyes for any sign of betrayal, she finally said, "Agreed. You had better go, you don't want to be late."

"Good-bye Maggie." And with a final squeeze of Maggie's shoulder, Lena departed the café.

Maggie stood there for a moment, staring after her. She looked down at the man who had been sitting behind her for the majority of the conversation. "You moving over to my table or not?"

Patrick turned and looked at her. "I didn't want to interrupt."

"I figured. Move over here and you can give me your opinion."

Patrick stood and swung around Maggie's small table, taking the seat that had been occupied by Lena. Maggie sat down again in her chair and looked at Patrick. "So….I assume you know who that was."

He rested his forearms on the little table and interlaced his fingers, knitting his hands together. "Yes. When it was first discovered she was working with Michael, I was briefed on her to make sure she never came anywhere near Alexander Cambias. She is also in Bianca's dossier."

"And what do you think of the advice she gave me? About defining myself." She lifted her cup and took a long drink from it.

"Well, I think she was oddly sincere. It sounded to me as if she did only care for what would make Bianca happy. And you do make her happy."

Maggie lowered her cup and set it down. She stared at the table top, and said in a low voice, "And she makes me happier than I ever thought I had a right to be."

"Isn't that the root of the problem then? That you don't feel you deserve to feel this way? Or do you think it is because you can't define your sexuality?"

"I have no clue Patrick. I really don't."

Patrick smiled a broad, fatherly type smile at Maggie. "Well, it is certainly not anything you have to figure out today." He paused for a moment, then asked, "So, if I may ask, are you going to tell Bianca you saw her?"

"Part of me wants to, part of me is afraid to and yet another part of me knows she will find out someday anyway. When I got up today, the last thing on my mind was Lena." She paused to take a drink. "And I do have to admit, it kind of creeps me out she followed me."

"Don't worry…I was following her." he said with a grin. "I got done with my errand sooner than I thought, and as I was walking here, I spotted you quite a distance ahead, and then I spotted Lena, and thought it best I hang back and see what she was doing."

Maggie smiled. "Chauffer…father figure…guardian angel…is there anything you don't do?"

"Cook. We already covered this, remember? Speaking of, why don't you come home with me for dinner tonight. Guilia has been asking about the both of you, and I am sure it can't be any fun sitting in that big apartment by yourself."

Maggie went silent for a moment, thinking that very subject over. He was right, it wasn't. She had barely wandered past the kitchen for fear of being swallowed up by the void that was the rest of the domicile. "You know, that does sound like an awfully good idea. However…I'm not joining you on the balcony if you're smoking." she said with a grin.

Patrick turned pale. "Thanks for that reminder." He grumbled.

May 28th – Late Night

Maggie was standing in the kitchen, fidgeting nervously. She was excited Bianca and Miranda were almost home, but she was trying to calm herself so she didn't seem too anxious. It obviously wasn't working as she had jumped at the sound of the elevator rumbling up the shaft. Unable to contain herself, she went to the entrance hall and opened the door.

The elevator doors opened and the first thing she saw was a sleeping Miranda in her stroller, followed by an exhausted looking Bianca, and finally, a suitcase ladened Patrick.

"Aw! Look what Miranda brought me from Florida! A tired mommy and a pack mule!"

"Lovely to see you too." Bianca mumbled back.

Patrick shot Maggie a look indicating Bianca, and then shook his head with an emphatic 'no'. Maggie caught the gist, and cut the usual smart ass tone. She looked at Bianca. "Are you ok? You look exhausted. Here….let me take Miranda for you." She took the stroller from Bianca and wheeled the little girl into the apartment.

"Thanks." came the tired and hoarse reply. "I think the trip was too fast of a turnaround time for her, she is all messed up in her sleeping. She was wide awake for the entire flight. She only closed her eyes in the car on the way here."

"Aw…poor thing!" Maggie said, lifting Miranda from her stroller. "Well, I will go put her to bed after I clean her up and change her. You just go on up to bed."

"Wish I could! I'm tired, but also wired at the same time. Plus, Patrick brought along some paperwork that Aurélia says needs my immediate attention. So, I think I'll take a shower and play it by ear." Bianca looked over at Patrick. "Again, thank you so much for picking me up so late."

"Not a problem ma'am. I will just take these bags upstairs for you."

"Thank you Patrick." Bianca again turned back to Maggie. "Are you going to be up for awhile?"

Maggie and Bianca started walking towards the stairs as they talked. "Yeah. I'm going to put Munchkin down, and then I have some homework to do."

"Ok, I'll knock on your door if I come back down, and I will fill you in on all the gossip."

As they crested the staircase, and turned to go to the separate bedrooms of Bianca and Miranda, she said over her shoulder, "alright, but only if you're not too tired."

"Oh trust me, there are a few things you'll want to know."

Bianca and Maggie were seated on opposite sides of the butcher block. Bianca's hair was wet and slicked back, and she was wearing a turquoise colored, silky robe. Maggie was in the ever present 'Tigers 35' jersey, and sweat pants, her hair pulled back in a ponytail.

After her shower, Bianca had gone down to the kitchen and asked Maggie to join her for some tea. She gave Maggie all the highlights of the wedding first, and then broke into the gossip.

"So let me get this straight….not only did Kendall give up on 'love' and Ethan…she's trying to marry Zach Slater, Ethan's dad for crying out loud, for 'business reasons'?" Maggie inquired, making air quotes with her fingers for the last two words.

Bianca nodded in the affirmative as she flipped through the paperwork Patrick had brought her.

"Well, would have been nice to have had that little tidbit of info about Ethan and Kendall when he was here." Maggie snarled.

"Oh trust me, he heard about that from me. Nothing I like better than an unknowingly ambushing my own sister. She did finally calm down, but I still felt bad doing that to her."

"Of course you did." Maggie shook her head and laughed. "Man, I so do not miss Pine Valley some days."

Bianca smiled, still looking at her papers. "You and I both. Things are so much calmer here. Multi-million dollar company or not, there is a lot less drama around this place."

Maggie set down her tea cup and went a little bit quiet, her mind darting back to her conversation with Lena. "Yeah….less drama."

Bianca looked up from her papers for a moment. "Everything ok?"

"Yeah…of course…just think I'm getting tired is all."

"Well, don't stay up on my account! You're not the one with jet lag."

"Actually, I need to go finish up some homework and send it over to my professor, so I think I will go do that real quick, and then hit the sack." Maggie stood up, putting her arms above her head and stretching from side to side. All done, she picked up her tea cup and walked over to the sink to wash it later.

As she turned around, she looked at Bianca and smiled as a thought crossed her mind. She stepped over to stand next to Bianca, placed her hands behind her back and while rocking back and forth on her toes, she cleared her throat."

Bianca looked up at her and laughed at her. "What?"

"I believe…" she said, biting her lower lip, "I am owed…" she squinted one eye, and looked deep in thought, "I think it's five hugs. Pay up woman!"

Bianca laughed, stood up, and pulled Maggie into a hug. Though she wouldn't say anything, even this small amount of closeness always felt good. Breaking the hug, she looked at Maggie. "Do we just do one long hug, or five distinct hugs?" she asked with a devilish grin.

"Oh five distinct hugs young lady!" her face looking stern. She stepped back, paused, and stepped forward again to have another hug. They repeated this little dance three more times until they were all done, and both in fits of giggles.

"You know what?"

"What?" Maggie replied.

"I think that's another reason I'm glad I'm no longer in Pine Valley. You're not there."

"Let's not get into a 'which came first' discussion at this hour! I would be there if you were there….if you weren't there would I be there…yadda yadda yadda." She said, waving her hands back and forth like a ball being batted back and forth.

"Oh fine…go do your homework." Bianca said with a laugh.

"Yes mom!" Maggie said, her voice deepening and her eyes shooting skyward. As she turned to leave, she felt her hand get grabbed at the last second. She looked down to see Bianca holding it.

"All kidding aside Maggie…it does feel good to be….home."

Maggie smiled warmly. "And it's good to have you home."

Their hands lingered as the silence deepened, their eyes locked, but neither said a word. Finally, in a mutual break, they parted ways.

Maggie stared at the cursor blinking at her from her laptop screen. In time with it, she said, "I mock you…you know nothing…no smarts here…ha ha…"

She groaned in frustration and stood up to walk over to her bed and grab another book from her school bag. As she picked it up, something fell out and hit her bare foot. She looked down, and not recognizing the item she picked it up…..it was Lena's business card.

Landing hard on the bed, she sat down and stared at it. She hadn't thought about it since the other day, and had actually forgotten she had it. She looked up from the card, and over at the door to the kitchen. Bianca was still in there, she could see the light from the kitchen under the door, and it would be so easy to walk in and hand this to her…

"No! Lena had said she wouldn't tell her, so why should you?" Maggie thought. "Because you also know, the way things work with you and Bianca, the truth always comes out some time."

Maggie leaned back and laid herself down on her bed. She lifted the card above her face, and held it with both hands. "Silly girl…it's just a card. Just paper with ink….why not give it to her?"

She rolled over on to her stomach, placing the card on the bed, and supporting her chin with her hands, continued to stare at it. "Yeah..a piece of paper with all the vital info needed to bring Lena back into Bianca's life…leaving you where in that picture?"

Heaving a sigh she stood up, grabbed her book, and walked back to her laptop. "That can wait, this paper can't." she mumbled out loud to herself. She plopped down in the chair, and went back to staring at the cursor.

The blinking continued to mock her, but slowly, the wording changed. "Tell her…she deserves to know…you will always question 'what if' if you don't….". She ran her hands over her pulled back hair and groaned.

Turning around in her chair, she stared at the card lying on her bed.

Bianca continued to flip papers, some of them making sense, some of them not. She was finally starting to feel tired, but not entirely. Some of the words on the pages were starting to mush together, but she thought she could make it.

She lifted her right hand, and rubbed her eyes with her fingers. When she looked down again, sitting on top of the papers was a business card written in French. She picked it up and studied it. She looked up from it, and saw Maggie standing there, hands clasped behind her back, biting her lower lip, but now, looking concerned, instead of happy as she had earlier.

Bianca smiled at her. "Is she doing ok?"

Maggie sucked in her breath, not expecting that question. "Yeah…she has a new job…her mom's better…and…..she's dating a co-worker….her name's Tola, and they have been together for awhile now."

Bianca's smile grew even wider. "Good." She handed the card back to Maggie. "If you don't mind, could you send her a couple pictures of Miranda? If you think she would want to see her that is."

"Uh….yeah…of course."

Bianca grinned. "Thanks for telling me…I appreciate it." She looked back down at her paperwork and flipped through it again. "All done with your homework?" she asked.

"What's going on here Bianca? Are you mad at me I didn't tell you sooner?"

"No…NO! Not at all!" she said looking back up.

"Well then why do you want me to email her? Why are you giving me back her card? Don't you want to contact her? She might still be in town!"

"Maggie…." she softened her voice more than usual, "if she really wanted to talk to me, don't you think she would have made the effort?"

Maggie hung her head, staring at the floor. "I guess. I….I just don't get this." She held up the card at waist height and looked at it again. "She's right here Bianca….all you have to do is call her."

Bianca sighed and stood up. She placed her hands on Maggie's shoulders, and bent at the knees to try to look into Maggie's eyes. "Will you listen to me for just one minute?" Maggie nodded yes. "I loved Lena…I really did, and a part of me always will, but that's over now. She has someone new in her life, and I have everything I need in mine for right now. I have my mom finally married off to Uncle Jack, I have a new brother, two new sisters…"

Maggie snorted a laugh, and raised her head to look at Bianca. "Lucky you. You get to claim Greenlee as family now."

Bianca smiled, and raised back to her full height, since Maggie had finally looked up. "Yep. She's family now. Let's see…I have the best relationship with Kendall that I've ever had. And then there's here. I have a beautiful daughter upstairs, and I have my best friend with me. What more do I really need right now Maggie?"

"A girlfriend." she said sheepishly.

Bianca cupped Maggie's right cheek with her left hand, and smiled at her. "Not right now….I have everything I need in my life at the moment."

Maggie finally smiled, and croaked out a hoarse "ok".

Bianca pulled Maggie into a hug and squeezed her as tightly as possible, Maggie returned the gesture. "Thank you for telling me Maggie. And someday, when you feel up to it, you can tell me the whole story of how you even ran into her."

"I can tell you know if you want."

Bianca pushed away from her. "Did you send your work off to your professor?"

"Um…well….I…I kinda got distracted by this…" she said, holding up the business card she still had in her hand.

Bianca spun Maggie around by her shoulders, and placed her hands palm first on Maggie's back, shoving her towards her bedroom door. "March! No story telling until you finish your homework young lady!"

Maggie dug her heels in and raised her voice to the imaginary pitch of a small girl. "You can't make me! I don't wanna! Read me a story! I want a glass of water! Where's my blanky?"

Laughing, Bianca said, "I take back what I said earlier….it seems I have two daughters! And here I was telling everyone at the wedding how giddy you were about being back in school!"

Maggie went spread eagle, holding on to the door frame. "You can't make me! I'm a big girl now!"

"A big girl with a foot up her behind!" Bianca raised her leg, placed her foot on Maggie's backside and uncoiled her leg shoving Maggie into her room with her foot. She reached over, slammed the door and let out a triumphant, "HA!"

Maggie scratched at the door from the other side, moaning, "Meanie!".

Bianca had to fold her arms over her stomach she was laughing so hard. Very quietly, under her gasping breath, she muttered, "She's almost back...Maggie's almost back."


	5. Chapter 5

June 11th – Morning

Sleep can be as enjoyable as a good steak when you are in need of it. When you are drifting in that deep, feel it in your bones, sleep, the last thing you want is a rude awakening. Like, say, curtains being flung open, and a crazy woman dancing through the room while singing a made up, off key, song.

"Beach day…gonna get some sun…because it's beaaaaaaeeeeaaaach day!"

Bianca grabbed a pillow and flung it blindly across the room, hoping that by pure luck she would hit the source of the sound and light. Sadly, the pillow made no sound except that of skidding across the carpet floor, once it had hit the ground.

"Awwwww! How can you be such a grumpy Gus on…beaaaaeeeeeaaaaach day?"

Bianca violently pulled the covers over her head, hoping the sound making creature would go away. Alas, it just landed in the bed, on its knees, next to her. Bouncing up and down, it used its hands to shake her back and forth.

"Get up! Get up! Getupgetupgetupgetup!" The still un-seen body belly flopped when she changed positions, so now, she was laying on her stomach, facing Bianca. A finger hooked the sheet, and slowly pulled it down to where Bianca could now see her attacker, who was grinning like a maniac. "Wake up!"

"Maggie…I love you…don't make me hurt you."

"It's a gorgeous day out. I have all my homework done. I checked your schedule and you're free today and Miranda…well…" Maggie lifted her eyes, shaking her head back-and-forth in a show of faux humility. "She had a couple of things on her schedule, but I shifted those around."

"That's Erica Kane's granddaughter…a full social schedule already." Bianca said, lifting her arms out from under the covers and stretching.

"So come on, get up, and we'll have a beach day." Maggie said with an enormous grin.

Bianca rolled fully onto her side, and placed her hands under her head to support herself on the pillow. "We will huh? And how exactly do you propose that since Patrick has the day off, and we have no car plus we live nowhere near a beach."

"We'll make our own!"

"And just where do you propose we put this 'beach'?" Bianca said, waking up more and laughing with her friend.

"Hello? Giant terrace! We can just lay out there."

"And why, pray tell, do we even need to lay out?"

"Have you looked at us lately? The French air traffic control called and said our pasty whiteness was becoming a distraction to passing pilots!"

Bianca stared at Maggie, her jaw sagging a bit. "Your mind is a truly scary place, do you know that?"

Maggie grinned proudly. "Yep! Now come on, time's a wastin'!" Maggie rolled off the bed, swinging her legs around so that she stood up in one fluid motion. "I already got out a bikini for you, I'll grab Miranda and get her all gussied up, you can grab towels, and I'll meet you out there." And with that, she disappeared into the master bathroom to pass into Miranda's room.

Bianca sat up in bed and stared after her. "And Patrick calls his daughters the whirling dervishes….yeesh." She threw off her covers and saw a pale blue bikini lying on the chair next to her bed. She grinned and thought, "What would I do without her."

Miranda sat on her mother's lap in a little yellow sun dress with a matching floppy hat on to protect her eyes. Bianca was in her bikini, with a short robe on over that, and was applying sun block to all of Miranda's exposed skin. Maggie had plopped the little girl in her lap, while she ran back in to change in to her swimsuit.

A few minutes later she reappeared, hair in a ponytail, a bright pink bikini and a light pink, short sleeved, button down shirt on over that. Bianca had just set Miranda down and was laying out the towels as she approached.

"You do realize it's only in the 60's today don't you?" Bianca asked as Maggie opened the door.

"Um…no…that I didn't realize." She pondered for a moment, and then made a dismissive gesture with her hands. "We'll be fine for a little while."

Bianca rolled her eyes. "Don't come crying to me later when we all have hypothermia."

Maggie laughed. "I can just see those headlines now 'Women Found Frozen To Death While Sunbathing!'."

"Sounds about right!"

Maggie took off her shirt and straightened the towel meant for her before she sat on it. As she did, she turned her back to Bianca, and that was when she spotted the rare sight of Maggie's tattoo of a ballet dancer in mid-leap. It wasn't obvious very often due to its placement just above her right hip. It had always intrigued Bianca, especially since Frankie had a matching one, but she had never asked about it.

Maggie finally sat down and brought her knees up to a peak so she could rub suntan lotion on her lower legs. "You get munchkin all covered up?"

Bianca was now sitting on her own towel, legs open some so that Miranda could sit between them. "Sure did, she's good to go."

Miranda giggled and wrestled herself free of her mother's grip. She crawled over to Maggie, who welcomed her with open arms and a giant smile and scooped her into her lap to hold her.

Bianca smiled serenely at the two of them. "I'm so glad you two get along."

"Well, I've been meaning to tell you, we really don't. This is all a show for you when you're home. While you're at work during the day….yeah…there's been some hair pulling and cat scratching." Maggie joked.

"Miranda! I'm ashamed of you beating up your nanny like that!"

Miranda giggled while patting Maggie on the cheek and looking at her mother.

"See! Nanny abuse! Nanny abuse!" Maggie screamed falling over onto her side.

As the morning wore on, it finally warmed up to a decent temperature the girls could live with. They laid out, chatting more than paying attention to anything going on.

What was on Bianca's mind was Maggie's tattoo. She kept finding excuses to be at an angle where she could look at it. Right now she was sitting in a chair next to Maggie, holding Miranda. Three and a half years she had known Maggie, and she could pretty much count the number of times she had seen it. And in all those times, there had never really been an appropriate time to ask about it. Finally, around noon, she worked up the courage. "Maggie?"

She was laying face down, her head resting on her hands. "mmhmm" came the drowsy reply.

"Can I ask you something personal?"

Maggie scrunched up her face. "Since when do you have to ask permission?"

"I'm just not sure about this one."

"Just ask…I really doubt there is anything you could ever ask that would bother me."

"Well…I was curious about your tattoo."

Maggie smiled and chuckled. "That's all?"

"Yeah…I was wondering if there was some meaning behind it. I know Frankie had the exact same one, but when I asked her about it, she grumbled something about it not being any of my business."

Maggie finally lifted her head and shook it. "That was Frankie for you." She turned her head to look up at Bianca and squinted her left eye against the sun. "Seriously, in all the time we've known each other, we never talked about it?"

"No. I've always been kind of afraid to ask about it because it seemed to irritate Frankie."

"I could have sworn we did. Strange. Oh well." Maggie lifted herself to onto all four's, and swung around so she was sitting upright. She then drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them and leaned her head so she was looking at Bianca. "You know, I honestly forget it's there some days. I can't see it, and when I got it feels like a lifetime ago."

"So…does it mean something?"

"Yes it does…to me at least."

Bianca could see a wistful look pass over Maggie's face. "If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to, I shouldn't have…."

"No, it's fine, I was just trying to remember all the details really. Frankie had run away again, and had been gone a couple of weeks. It was the day before our 16th birthday, dad was who-knows-where, mom was drunk as usual and I had decided to go out surfing. I got home late, not that it mattered to anyone, and went straight to bed because I was so tired. Then, around midnight I heard a knocking on the window, I got up and went to see what it was, and there was Frankie."

April 26th, 1998

"Frankie! What are you doing here?"

"Get dressed."

"Why?" Maggie turned and looked back over her shoulder at the clock. "It's midnight for crying out loud, I'm not going out now. And you could always come in you know."

"Fat chance of that happening, now get dressed."

"Why should I?"

Frankie stared at her older twin. "Because….it's our birthday."

Maggie saw a look she had never really seen in her sister's eyes before. It almost looked like concern….and caring. It was several seconds before she said anything. "Give me a minute." She quickly threw on some clothes and crawled out the window, cursing herself all the time for going along with whatever crazy idea her sister was having. "Alright…you got me to come out. Now what?"

Frankie gestured with her head out to the street where a car was sitting. "Come on."

"Should I even ask where you got that?"

"Probably not." Frankie said, with a straight face.

Minutes later, Frankie pulled the compact car up in front of a tattoo parlor.

"What in the world are we doing here?"

"We're getting tattoos."

"Excuse me?" Maggie asked with a shocked tone. "I don't think so! You can just take me back home thank you very much."

"Just hear me out Mags!"

Maggie folded her arms, locked her jaw and stared straight ahead. "What?"

Frankie turned in the seat to face her twin. "Do you remember when we were 5, and we begged our folks to let us take ballet classes? And only after weeks and weeks of begging, they finally gave in?"

Maggie said nothing.

"And we only got to do it for a little while because eventually mom forgot to pay for the classes because she was always drunk?"

"Yeah…I remember."

"Well, do you remember any other time you and I ever agreed on anything? Any other time we actually got along? How about any other time the two of us ever really felt like honest-to-gosh sisters, let alone twins?"

Maggie raised her right hand and tried to conceal a tear rolling out of her right eye. "No….I can't say that I can think of any other time like that."

Frankie pulled a piece paper out of her denim jacket and unfolded it. "Here…look at this."

Maggie turned her head and looked at Frankie. Finally she looked down at the paper that she was being presented to her. She took it and looked at what it contained.

"I drew that the other night when I was bored. When I was done…I don't know…it's hard to explain, but it spoke to me. I was thinking about making it into a tattoo….and I thought….I thought maybe you would want it also."

Maggie stared at it. It was solid black drawing of a ballet dancer in mid leap with her arms extended. Maggie honestly thought she had never seen anything that looked so free and alive.

"Well?"

"It's gorgeous."

"So what do you think? Do you want it also?"

"Well small problem brainiac….we just turned 16, not 18."

"I've got that covered." she said as she pulled out a fake ID. "We can just say you forgot yours, but since we obviously share the same birthday, it shouldn't be a problem."

Maggie rolled her eyes, not from surprise though. "Ok…not wanting to know about where you got that. And am I safe in guessing there's a wad of cash I don't want to know about either?"

Frankie just grinned.

Thirty minutes later, the Stone sisters were lying on their stomachs on tattoo chairs in the shop, their heads turned so they could look at each other. Frankie's left arm was extended so she could hold hands with her sisters extended right hand. They both would occasionally wince, but mostly they just giggled and smiled. Sharing what was possibly the only "sister" moment they had since those ballet classes all those years before.

June 11th, 2005

Bianca reached up to wipe away her tears. "I had no idea."

"Frankie came back to live at home one more time and then that was it." Maggie looked up and saw Bianca wiping away the tears. She reached out with her left hand and placed it on Bianca's knee. When Bianca finally looked at her, she smiled back. "Don't be sad, this is a good memory. One of the few times that Frankie and I were connected by more than our genes. And besides seeing her face every time I look in the mirror, I always have another reminder of her with me."

Bianca smiled back and placed her right hand on top of Maggie's. "I know it's a good memory, that's why I'm crying. It's nice to have good memories of Frankie….and thank you for sharing that one with me."

Maggie stared at their hands resting on Bianca's knee. It was an odd realization of where she had put it, but she was suddenly hyper-aware of the fact. Bianca seemed to sense it also as they looked at each other, and something crossed both their faces that resembled recognition.

Bianca started to stand up. "But now…I need a tissue. Can you hold Miranda for a minute while I go get one?"

"Of course!" Maggie said, eagerly taking the small child into her arms.

Bianca smiled at the sight of her daughter in her best friend's arms. Without thinking, she leaned over and kissed the top of Maggie's head.

Maggie looked up at Bianca. "What was that for?"

"For being you." She said with a smile and walked away with a bounce in her step.

"It's a full time job you know!" she yelled after Bianca. As Bianca walked away laughing, Maggie continued watching her walk through the apartment, courtesy of the giant glass wall. Once she was out of sight in the bathroom, Maggie looked down at Miranda. "Speaking of genes, if you get your mommy's figure, you'll be one lucky little girl."

Miranda was far more interested in her nap she had begun, than the conversation Maggie was trying to start.

June 11th – Night

The rest of the day had been uneventful. After they finished their 'beach day', the girls had just hung around the apartment, not doing much of anything. After dinner and a movie, both of them retired to their rooms to get some much needed sleep.

Sleep was not coming easy for Maggie though, as she kept thinking about her hand on Bianca's knee. It had started innocently enough, but the more she thought about it, the more it nagged at her. The more it made her think back to that night nearly a year ago, and the game of "Truth or Dare", followed by her confession of feelings for her friend in the morning.

So much had happened since then to distract her from her feelings for Bianca, but ever since the plane ride over to France, and yet another kiss, she was thinking about her again. She was finding herself paying more attention to how Bianca dressed…how she walked…her legs…even how she smelled in the mornings. Maggie had had other friends in her life, but she never thought about any of them the way she would think about Bianca, not even Jamie.

She rolled over on to her side and stared at her red lava lamp Reggie had sent over with her other items. She watched the lava flow to and fro, changing shapes … merging …breaking apart…colliding again. Who knew a lava lamp could be a metaphor for her entire friendship with Bianca? "Oh we're getting close….look we touched…now I must float away." she thought. She laughed at her own silliness and shook her head.

Sleep was finally overcoming her. She could feel it approaching in waves, and she wasn't going to fight it anymore. She was….ready….to……

Maggie's eyes snapped open. She'd been asleep for what felt like 2 seconds, and now she was wide awake. Instead of lying down though, she was sitting on the edge of her bed for some reason. She was wearing a skin tight black, long sleeved dress that covered her entire neck, and formed like a pool at her feet so she couldn't even see them.

She looked around her room, and spotted the lamp on her desk was on. In the pool of the light there was a book lying open. She couldn't explain it, but she felt drawn to it. She rose from her sitting spot, and glided more than walked, over to the desk.

Examining the book, she saw it was a collection of Shakespeare's sonnets with some letter's underlined. 'Wait a minute…' she thought, 'that's Frankie's and my code.' She looked closer at the book and quickly deciphered the hidden message. It was one word, "Terrace".

In the blink of an eye she was standing in the vast living room, looking at the back of a woman standing on the terrace, who was dressed in an identical dress to hers, except it was white.

She opened the doors and stepped out into the bright sunlight. The world had some fuzz around the edges, giving it an unreal feeling, and the sun was far brighter than usual, but she did not feel the need to squint.

The woman in white was facing away from Maggie and staring up at the Eiffel Tower. "Who would have ever thought it? You…in Paris…living this close to the Tower. What was it Mrs. Branbridge used to say about us?"

"Those Stone girls will never get anywhere in life!" they said in unison.

"Not that I'm unhappy to see you, because I am happy, but what are you doing here Frankie?"

Frankie turned her head and looked at Maggie. "It seems you need my help."

"Help with what?"

"What do you think stupid? The same thing everyone has been trying to help you with lately! Your silly fears about a certain little rich girl we both know."

Maggie placed her hands on the railing, and stared down to the street below. "I didn't ask you here."

Frankie turned around and leaned against the railing, folding her arms across her chest. She turned her head to look at Maggie and leaned closer. "You had something to do with it….do you think I would have put myself in a dress and lipstick?"

Maggie chuckled. "Good point."

"So…here you are. You live in Paris with Bianca-la, everyone tells you to be with her, even you think you should be with her sometimes, but yet….you're not. What's up with that? Scared what Mama Kane might have to say about another one of us Stone girls going after her daughter."

"Erica and I get along fine. We're not bosom buddies or anything, but I don't think she has a problem with me."

Frankie snorted in disgust and looked away. "Glad one of us could get along with her. So come on, what's stopping you?"

"Fear."

"Fear of what?" Maggie blinked and they suddenly were standing in Bianca's bedroom, each of them on an opposite of the bed, staring down at a sleeping Bianca. "Fear of her?" Frankie continued.

Maggie looked down at her friend and smiled warmly. "No….not her….I could never be afraid of her."

"Is it the fact that loving her would mean you are in love with another woman?"

"That's part of it for sure."

"Then what is the other part?" Frankie asked.

"What it means….if I love her. What would happen eventually."

Frankie took a seat on Bianca's bed and twisted to look at Maggie. "What do you mean by that?"

Maggie sat down on her side of the bed, so now they were both talking with Bianca lying there between them. "What happens to every relationship Frankie? They come to an end. And in this case, not only would I lose an incredible woman, I would lose my best friend in the world."

"You have no clue how badly I want to smack you right now." Frankie said, shaking her head.

Maggie laughed. "I know…it's silly of me, but…."

"But nothing Mags!" Frankie stood up again and started gesturing towards the sleeping form of Bianca. "You have one of the most incredible women…hell…one of the most incredible people on the face of the planet in love with you, and you want to worry about what other people might think and what might happen some day down the road? I thought you were smarter than that!"

Maggie hung her head some. "I know…I know it's silly of me, but Frankie….I just wouldn't be able to handle not having her in my life at all, whether it be as a girlfriend or as my best friend."

"You're not our parents Maggie. You have no clue what could happen here. This could be it, she could be 'the one', and yet you want to sit back and do nothing because of what 'might' happen down the road. There is such a thing as being too cautious you know."

"I know Frankie…I know."

Frankie's expression finally softened. "I just…I just want happiness for both of you Maggie. And I think you are both denying yourself that by not being together."

Maggie noticed that Frankie was no longer looking at her, but instead was looking down at Bianca with the warmest smile imaginable. Frankie then leaned forward, placing the softest of kisses on Bianca's forehead. She cupped Bianca's cheek and smiled even broader. "She is the most amazing woman I ever met Maggie. She has so much love to give, and it could all be yours with just a few words."

Maggie blinked again, and they were out on the terrace once more. Frankie was again looking up at the tower. "You are going to have to say something to her, and soon Maggie. You can't expect her to wait forever."

"I know Frankie…believe me….I know. She has shown more patience than anyone deserves already….more than I deserve, that's for sure."

Frankie spun around with an angry look on her face. "Stop that! Stop that right now! I am so sick of it! 'you know, you know' You don't know anything! You and I both deserved better than we got as kids, and I sure as hell deserved better than what I got a few years ago at the hands of Auntie Vanessa's crew. She.." Frankie said, gesturing towards the upstairs, "is ready to love you…right here, right now, and you keep pussy footing around. Just stop it Maggie…just stop it…."

Maggie saw a tear rolling out of one of Frankie's eyes. She reached over to wipe it away and Frankie pulled away.

"I had my chance Maggie…" she said in a voice barely above a whisper, "and I blew it. Don't follow in my footsteps. Don't lose your shot with her."

Maggie could feel something pulling her back into the apartment, back towards her bed. "I won't Frankie….I won't waste it. I promise to take care of her…..and I give you my word I will try to get over my fears." The pull was getting stronger and she was now being pulled towards the doors, against her own will. "I love you Frankie….and thank you."

Frankie look shocked at Maggie saying 'I love you', but only said one thing in return. "Maggie…if you ever hurt her in anyway…I will be back…I will be back every single night….and I won't be so nice."

Maggie smiled. "I wouldn't expect any less from you, I……"

bzzzt

bzzzt

bzzzt

Maggie smacked the alarm button. "Stupid clock."

June 12th – Morning

Maggie shuffled around the kitchen making coffee as she thought over her dream. Even if that was all it was, it was nice to 'talk' with Frankie. Sure, over the years she had one sided conversations with her deceased twin, but never anything that resembled what she had just been though in her sleep.

So many of Frankie's words resonated in her ears still, but most specifically it was, 'She is the most amazing woman I ever met Maggie. She has so much love to give, and it could all be yours with just a few words.'

Maggie opened the refrigerator and got out some eggs to scramble up for breakfast. She had already fed Miranda, who now cheerfully sat on the floor by the dining room entrance playing with a stuffed bear. The only person missing from the happy trio was the source of all of last night's angst.

As she started cracking the eggs into a bowl, her mind drifted far away again, remembering all the good times with Bianca, as well as some of the bad. For some unexplained reason though, that puzzled even her, a conversation she had with Jonathan ,after the first time they slept together, popped into her head. Though she now realized it was one of his many manipulations, he had asked her what it felt like to be in love with someone, and she replied 'Yes.'.

'That's what it feels like to love someone. Loving someone makes you feel like you could say 'yes' to the world. And not just because you can, but, you really don't have a choice."

Maggie chuckled to herself as she whisked the eggs. "Oh yeah, that was the wrong person to be saying that to." she mumbled.

"Saying what?" came Bianca's voice from behind her.

Maggie turned and stared at Bianca, who had entered while she was lost in thought. She had picked up Miranda and was holding her cheek to cheek with her. Together like that, it was almost as if they glowed. Upon Bianca's forehead, she saw what might have either been a trick of light, or it was quite possibly just the smallest of traces of two lipstick covered lips placing a kiss on the forehead.

Maggie stood there. Whisk in her right hand, a bowl of raw eggs in the left. Hair still a mess from sleep, her pajamas crumpled and creased, staring at her best friend. In this most awkward of moments, unromantic in the least, it was at this time and this place that Maggie realized it was Bianca she should have always been saying 'yes' to.


	6. Chapter 6

June 12th – Morning

"Maggie?"

Maggie continued to stand motionless with her whisk in one hand and bowl of eggs in the other, staring blankly into space.

Bianca sat Miranda back down on the floor and walked over to her best friend. "Maggie…are you ok?"

Maggie shook her head and squinted her eyes like she was shaking away something. "Yeah…yeah…" she opened her eyes again and stared right at Bianca. "Yes." She spun around on the last word, and went back to whisking her eggs.

Bianca walked up closer to her, and put her right hand on Maggie's left shoulder. She could feel the muscles under the spot she touched spasm. "Are you sure you're ok? You were talking to yourself when I walked in, and just now you went almost catatonic. Here, let me take that and you sit down." She took the eggs from her friend that had now been whisked to within an inch of forming stiff peaks.

The shorter girl gave them up and walked over to one of the stools at the butcher block. "Yeah, I'm fine. I promise. I just had……I had a bad night's sleep is all."

Pouring the eggs into the pan, Bianca scrunched up her face as if she had just smelled something unpleasant. "Nightmares again?"

"No…it was….it was something else…don't worry about it, I'll be fine." She smacked her palms against her thighs and ran her hands up and down her legs. "So, what's on the agenda for today?"

"Nothing as fun as beach day for me I'm afraid. I have a pile of reports to wade through that you wouldn't believe. I should have been reading them yesterday, but somebody…" Bianca looked over her shoulder and smiled at Maggie, "dragged me outside all day."

"Yep, I'm evil." she said, half-heartedly.

Maggie was oddly silent throughout breakfast, barely picking at her food. While Bianca was concerned, she knew she could only ask her if she was alright so many times without going overboard.

As they stood at the sink, rinsing off the dishes from breakfast, Maggie turned to her right to look at Bianca. "Since you have all those reports to read today, do you want me to take Miranda in my room to give you some quiet?"

"Oh you don't have to do that. I can watch her if you have things to do."

"Naw…I have all my assignments done, I just thought I would do some reading, and to be honest, I wouldn't mind the company, she doesn't tend to talk back much when she disagrees." Maggie said with a chuckle.

"Well, if you are sure she won't be a bother…"

Maggie rolled her eyes. "Please…it's my job during the week anyway, you know I don't mind."

"Well, I probably should concentrate on these reports, so yes, thank you, that would be great!" Bianca said in her most chipper voice, but mainly she was accepting the offer because she thought it might perk Maggie up some to spend some time alone with Miranda.

After Maggie had disappeared into her room with the little girl, Bianca moved the box full of reports to the coffee table in the living room. She plopped herself down on the couch facing the seldom-used spiral staircase, as she figured if the tower was in front of her it would distract her too much. She found she still couldn't help but to stare at it sometimes.

Pulling the first folder from the box, she dropped her head in a show of defeat. "Oh joy…the first quarter synopsis for Estonia is finally done…I can barely contain my excitement." she muttered. She set it off to the side, sure there must be something more exciting in the box. There wasn't, but she went with a different folder anyway.

She snuggled back in the couch, trying to pretend she was about to read a juicy romance novel, but upon opening the page and being immediately greeted by a multi-colored graph, the fantasy died. She reminded herself that this was all for Miranda's future and that gave her the resolve to brave her way through.

Maggie sat at her desk, staring at her computer screen. She had no homework at the moment, but she still would explore medical websites to learn whatever she could. She looked at it as getting a jump start in what she would need to know eventually anyway. Today though, she had started the computer, opened her browser, and just sat there staring at it ever since.

She was still shaken up from her dream of Frankie the night before. It had seemed so real, but how could it be? There was no such thing as ghosts….or at least she thought there couldn't be. She tried pushing it out of her head, it wasn't like she didn't have plenty of other things to think about. All of her talks with Patrick…the comments Guilia had made at dinner…her surprising conversation with Lena….and of course, Frankie. And that doesn't even include all the people back in Pine Valley who had ever said something about her and Bianca becoming a couple. Reggie and Jamie had always been two of the biggest supporters. A smile crept across her face as she thought back to something Reggie had said to her once.

"Maggie! How can you go wrong with a couple whose initials would spell BAM? It's like the universe is trying to tell you something Mags! You just have to listen to it."

She chuckled. "Leave it to Reggie to boil everything down to initials." she mumbled.

Maggie leaned back in her chair and stretched. Once done, she brought her hands down and cupped them behind her head to make a headrest of them. She turned her head to look over at Miranda, who was quietly sitting in her crib, bouncing a stuffed bear up and down. "What do you think about all this Munchkin?"

Miranda looked up at Maggie, squinted her eyes, and giggled while rocking back and forth.

"Oh really? You think so? You think all these people are right and I should just go for broke with your mommy?"

Miranda continued to giggle while Maggie rose from her seat, and walked over to her. She picked up the little girl, and walked back to her bed to sit on the edge, with the little girl in her lap. The tiny girl giggled, and turned so she was facing Maggie and hugged her. Maggie closed her eyes and smiled while she hugged the little girl as tight as she could.

"I don't know what I would do without you some days Munchkin, I really don't. When everything seems so confusing, and I feel like I am about to drown again in my own thoughts, all I have to do is look at you and the world seems just a little bit better because you're in it." Maggie pulled Miranda away so she could look her in the eyes. She studied them for a moment, looking as deep as she could, and whispered, "Not a sign of him in there…you are 100 Bianca's daughter, through and through, and that makes you a pretty special little girl."

Miranda smiled, and then made a big yawn. "Well, I think that's my hint I'm boring you! Why don't we see if we can't lay you down to get some sleep huh?" Maggie stood up, but then paused, and again looked at Miranda, but this time with a devious grin. "Or….we could use this as an excuse to go through the living room and take you upstairs to nap. And if that would just happen to mean passing by your mommy…oh well!"

Miranda giggled her approval.

Four reports later, and three thousand to go, Bianca stood up, and stretched and walked around the living room to un-cramp her legs. She found herself standing at the doors to the terrace, and she looked at the chair she had occupied just the day before while Maggie had told her the story of how she and Frankie had come to acquire their tattoos. It had touched her deeply and shown her a side of Frankie she thought existed, but had never been sure.

She folded her arms around herself in a hugging motion as she thought of the end of the event though. The moment when Maggie had placed her hand on her knee. She knew it was a touch of friendship, and her placing her own hand on top of Maggie's had just been an automatic reaction, but she would be lying if she didn't admit to it giving her a small thrill.

Sure, she had the daily hugs she shared with Maggie, and she looked forward to each and everyone, but ever since the plane ride, there had been no real movement towards them becoming a couple. She had to admit, it was beginning to get a bit discouraging, but understandable with all the distractions they had. So she had to take joy in every little moment she shared with Maggie, even if it was just a hand on her knee.

She was hopeful that Maggie hadn't caught her longing look at her. She was sure the hand had meant nothing to Maggie, but it had to her, and she didn't want her stare to make her uncomfortable. She did think later, that maybe the kiss on the head had been too much, but there was nothing she could do about that now.

There was one thing she knew for sure, she was still willing to wait for her, no matter how long it took. When Maggie had placed that business card of Lena's in front of her that night, there had been a millisecond she had thought of running to a phone and calling her. When she looked up at Maggie though….that had all gone away. For better or worse, she now knew that her heart truly does belong to Maggie.

As much as it pained her sometimes that her feelings may never be returned to her, she was happy enough for now just being near her all the time. And bringing Lena back in, even as a friend, would probably muddy those waters. And a friend was all she could be at this point, since Maggie had informed her that Lena was seeing someone else now. That did bring a smile to Bianca's face as she wanted nothing but happiness for her.

She turned around with a sigh, and walked back to the couch, pulling out another report from the box. She folded her legs up on the couch Indian style, and laid the report on her lap. As she read a ways into it, she finally noticed some movement out of the corner her eye. She was subconsciously rubbing the spot on her knee where Maggie had touched her the day before. "Girl….you've got it bad." she mumbled.

"Got what bad?" came a voice from her left. There stood Maggie with Miranda in her arms.

Bianca could feel the heat rising in her cheeks from the embarrassment. "Oh…um…got it bad with how many reports I have left to read!" She knew she had forced that out a little unconvincingly, but it was all she could think of.

"How many have you read so far?" Maggie asked, walking closer.

"A whopping four." she replied with disgust.

"Well, I would offer to help, but I would probably be asking you after every second word to explain to me what I had just read." Maggie replied with a grin.

"Your offer is much appreciated, but alas, this is my burden to bear." Bianca saw Miranda close her eyes and offer a mighty big yawn for such a small girl. "She wouldn't nap in your room?"

"No she wouldn't, which is odd since she usually goes right down. So I thought I would take her upstairs and see if that helped." Maggie turned towards the staircase behind Bianca. "And as for you, back to work! We have distracted you enough!"

"I'll pay you to distract me some more!"

Maggie laughed all the way up the stairs.

Miranda was lying in her crib, her eyes finally getting heavy and closing as Maggie sang softly to her. The little girl's eyes finally failed to open on one of their prolonged blinks, and Maggie couldn't help but to stand there for a moment and stare at her. She wasn't sure she could ever get tired of looking at this little girl….or her mommy.

Maggie hung her head while resting her arms on the side of the crib. She stared at her feet…they were suddenly fascinating to her. "You can't do anything without her popping into your head anymore you goof." She thought. "If you keep this up, she'll start showing up everywhere. 'Why, so that's what the heart looks like professor? Oh, I bet that's just how Bianca's looks!'" She snorted a laugh at that one.

She stood back up and walked out onto the landing outside of the nursery, closing the door behind her. She leaned forward on the railing, folded her arms, and rested her head on top of them. She kicked her right foot back so it was on its toes and bounced them up and down against the wood floor. She stared at the Eiffel Tower for a few minutes, something she was not sure she would ever tire of, while she got lost in her thoughts again.

"So, if you think about her constantly…everyone, including possibly your dead sister, says you should go for it…why aren't you? Nothing has ever taken this long for you to figure out. You are usually the one making the random decisions like telling Bianca you should go for a midnight swim…or convincing her to jump in the lake with her clothes on or…" she shut her eyes, and laid her forehead on her arms. "Ok, you can't even give examples of your bravery without thinking of her….you're a sad, sad woman."

She opened here eyes again and slid her head forward enough that she could look down in the living room. There she was. Still sitting on the couch, her back to Maggie, reading her reports. "She's right there….you could say something to her right now. What in the world do you say to someone you live with, and suddenly you want to go out on a date them?"

Maggie started biting her lower lip, and bouncing her foot more rapidly. "Do you even go on a date? I mean, we're living together…and is it our first date, or was prom our first date and I just didn't know it at the time?" Her foot was a blur now, and she was in danger of chewing through her lower lip. "Maybe I should take more time to think this through…what exactly it is we would be doing…".

Her lower back began to itch and she moved her right arm around to scratch it with her finger tips. "Yeah, that's it. I'll just take a little bit more time and…man this itch just won't die!" It was then that it dawned on her….she was scratching her tattoo. She cast her eyes skyward. "Alright already! I get the point!" and the itching ceased.

"Will the German and Austrian budgeting divisions merge? They really seem to love each other." Bianca though as she turned the page. "NO! De-nied! Poor German budgeting division." Bianca had found the only way to keep her sanity in reading these reports was to make a game out of them and it was failing miserably.

"What'cha ya doing Ms. Mogul?" came Maggie's voice.

"Same thing I have been doing for oh….the entire blasted day." she said despondently.

Maggie walked to where she could stand in front of her. "Sounds exciting." She just stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do.

Bianca finally looked up at her. "You ok?"

"I….um…I was….I…." she looked behind her, shoved the box of reports to the side, and sat on the coffee table. "I was wondering if I could…well….if I could ask you something."

Bianca could tell Maggie was as nervous as could be, and she tried to lighten the mood some. "What? And pull me away from these enthralling reports?" She threw the report in her hand over the back of the couch for dramatic effect. "So, what did you need to ask me?"

Maggie's palms suddenly felt very sweaty and she started to run them up and down her denim shorts, but due to their length, there wasn't much drying space. "Well…I've been doing some thinking…"

"Always dangerous." Bianca added, again trying to break some of the tension.

Maggie smiled. "Too true. Anyway, I was…I was thinking about us….you and I…and what a lot of people have been saying to me…and that maybe…" her throat was suddenly dry, and she was finding it hard to swallow. "maybe…you would….ah hell…Bianca would you like to go on a date with me next Saturday night?"

Bianca tried to hide her shock, but knew she was failing miserably when she saw Maggie's face turn from joy at getting her question out, to horror. She realized her jaw had dropped. She tried to close it, but it was too late.

"I knew it!" Maggie stood up and stormed off. "I knew this was a mistake! But no! People had to keep pushing me and pushing me." She stormed over to the glass wall and stared out over the city. "I'm sorry Bianca….I shouldn't have asked, I…"

"You should have waited for an answer." She walked up next to Maggie and stared straight ahead also. "Was that what you were going to say? I'm sure it was." Maggie was silent while Bianca continued. "I'm sorry if my expression shocked you…I was just caught off guard." They stood staring out at the city in silence for a moment before Bianca continued. "If I were to say 'yes', do you feel you are truly prepared for the consequences that answer brings with it?"

Maggie sniffled a bit, fighting back the tears. "What consequences? That I had finally asked the most wonderful person on the planet out on a date?"

Bianca blushed. "Well more to the point, that you would be asking a 'girl' out on a date Maggie…not a 'person'."

"I know full well you're a girl Bianca. It's kind of hard to miss."

Bianca's blush deepened even more. "I just want to make sure you are ready for what comes with this."

Maggie turned and looked at Bianca finally. "What do you think the first thing is I think of every morning when I wake up."

"I…I wouldn't know."

"It's you Bianca. And what's the last thing I think of before I go to sleep?"

"I…"

"It's you again Bianca. I think of you every minute of everyday. If you were a guy, and I thought of you like this, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. I would have been going out with you ages ago."

Bianca turned to look at Maggie also now. "And that's the heart of the problem Maggie. I'm not a guy, I'm a girl. And after all this time, all the false starts we've had…Maggie, I want to make sure. I want to make absolutely sure that you are ready for this."

"I couldn't be more ready if I was sent away to a 'Girl/Girl dating camp' Bianca. I want to go out with you, Bianca Montgomery…the most incredible woman on the face of the planet."

They stood and stared at each other for a moment, their eyes searching each other for a sign, any sign that the other was wavering in their convictions. There wasn't even a glimmer of such a thought.

"Well?"

"Ask me again."

"Bianca…would you like to go on a date with me next Saturday night?"

"Why Maggie….I believe I would be honored to be your date."


	7. Chapter 7

June 13th – Morning

Patrick pulled the limo up in front of Bianca's apartment building, as he did every weekday morning, at exactly 8:15 AM. He would spend the next 15 minutes perusing the newspaper, and promptly at 8:30 AM he would ring the buzzer for his employer's apartment, to let her know he was there. This morning was different though.

Just as he reached for the buzzer, the outer door to the building flung open, and Bianca came almost hopping out. "Good morning Patrick!" she chirped. She looked around, took in a deep breath and asked, "Isn't it a simply gorgeous day?"

He looked up at the sky and it was obvious there were rain clouds off in the distance. "Um…yes Ma'am. Gorgeous."

Bianca walked to the limo with a bounce in her step, and a smile broad enough on her face that it threatened to overtake her ears. Patrick kept a close eye on her in the rear-view mirror as they drove to the Cambias office building.

About halfway to their destination, Bianca moved forward in the limo, which she did anytime she needed to talk to Patrick. "Patrick…after you drop me off, Maggie needs you back at the apartment for something."

"Yes Ma'am. Is there a problem?"

"I don't know." Bianca said, her face turning into something resembling puzzlement. "She just said she needed you today." The smile returned to her face. "And I suspect she has something she wants to tell you, but I'm not going to ruin that for her."

A look of apprehension passed over Patrick's face. He was quickly learning that anytime these two girls started hiding something, it was usually something devious.

June 13th – Late Morning

The girls had given Patrick the entrance code to the building ages ago, and though he had a key to their apartment, he always preferred to knock first. This time, when he knocked, the door flew open in seconds, a pair of tiny hands shot out, grabbing him by the shirt collar and was accompanied by, "Get in here Frenchie!"

Patrick flew by the small frame of Maggie, and with his good shoes on, skidded a couple of feet into the hallway. Maggie slammed the front door, turned around panting and leaned against the door. She had a wild look in her eye like she was about to attack someone.

"Maggie…what is wrong?" Patrick inquired. "Has someone broken in?"

"Worse."

"Is Miranda sick or hurt?

Maggie paused. "Still worse."

"Is someone dead?"

"Does wishing you were count?"

"Maggie…please…what is going on?"

"I….asked Bianca out…on a date…for this Saturday…and I do not have the first clue what to do."

Patrick tried to contain himself from showing his elation, and relief, at this news. "I am assuming you have been on dates before? Not with Bianca I mean, more in the general sense."

Maggie shot him a look that could have boiled blood. "Yes!"

"Then why don't you think you know what to do?"

"Well…let's see, we're in a city I still don't know that well, I haven't been on a real date in ages, let alone a date with someone I already live with…..and oh yeah…I've never been on a date with a woman!"

"I'm still not seeing the problem here."

Maggie walked over to Patrick, looked up at him, and promptly punched him in the arm. "You are part of the reason I finally asked her, so you are going to help me figure out first, where in the world we are going, and second, how am I supposed to know what to do on a date with a girl!"

"Mon Dieu. First off, I will help you, so long as I do not get punched the rest of the week."

Maggie grumbled. "Done."

"Secondly, let's make you some tea and calm you down." He took Maggie by the shoulders, and gently guided her towards the kitchen. "Where is Miranda?" he asked.

Maggie pulled the baby monitor from her pocket. "She's upstairs, asleep. She seemed tired, so I laid her down for awhile."

"Ok, good." He guided Maggie to one of the stools and gently pressed down on her shoulders to indicate she should sit. He grabbed the tea kettle and started filling it. "So…how did this all come about."

Maggie chuckled. "Well, let's see….you telling me I should do it, Lena telling me I should, half of Pine Valley telling me I should and….others, telling me I should."

The kettle full, Patrick put it on the stove, and ignited the burner beneath it. "What was it that made you finally do it after all this time?"

Maggie rested her right elbow on the butchers block, and put her left hand down between her thighs. She stared at the hand resting on the butcher block as she pondered Patrick's question. "It….it just felt like it was time….and…my mind finally said 'yes'."

Patrick got the mugs from the cabinet, and looked back at her. "What do you mean your 'mind finally said yes'?"

"Long story. Just suffice it to say that means I finally realize I love her….I truly love her."

Patrick turned his back to Maggie again so she wouldn't see his enormous grin. "So, now that you have asked her out, you have no clue what to do, is that it?"

"Yeah..I mean…this is going to sound so weird."

"Try me."

"Well…who's the man? I mean, do I open the door for her, or does she open the door for me?"

Patrick got out the tea bags, and placed them in the mugs. "I would imagine it is whatever you feel most comfortable with. And since you asked her out, I would assume it would be you."

"But down the road, does it always stay that way?"

"Maggie…I am glad you are thinking long term, but how about we get you through just this date first?"

"Good point."

As the teapot began to whistle, Patrick turned off the burner and used an oven mitt to pour the boiling water into the mugs. "Ok, let's try to think about this calmly…you have gone to social events with her before correct? I believe you mentioned something about a dance…what was it you called it…a 'prom' I think?"

Maggie chuckled. "Yes, it was a prom, but that was ages ago, and we went just as friends to rub it in the faces of some snotty girls who were hassling Bianca….at least that's what it started off as….it grew into something else that night though…" she said, her voice trailing off.

Patrick looked over his shoulder, and could tell Maggie was lost in at least one happy memory. He hesitated before he spoke again. "Well, weren't there other social events?"

Maggie came out of her moment of remembrance and answered. "Sure, and most of them ended badly. Not through our own faults, but that's just the way things go in Pine Valley. We always seemed to be safest when it was just us."

"Well…." Patrick looked around the kitchen for effect, "I believe the only other person about from Pine Valley is a little young to cause much trouble."

Maggie rolled her eyes. "And see, that's a good point! What are we going to do with Miranda? Not a very romantic date if we have her with us. Don't get me wrong, I love her to bits, but a toddler does not a romantic date make."

Patrick laughed. "I believe I know a woman who would be more than happy to have some alone time with the little lady. Of course, it will make my life difficult for awhile, but I think I will live."

"You think Giulia could do that for us?"

"Of course! She adored Miranda that night we all had dinner, and she has asked me numerous times when I could bring her around again."

"Ok…so we have the Miranda situation settled….but…there's still the actual date."

The tea was finally brewed, and Patrick brought it over to the butcher block, placing one of the mugs in front of Maggie. "Maggie…you are now living in what is considered the most romantic city in the world. Just walking down the street with someone you care for can be romantic."

"I know that, but there are so many options." She reached across the butcher's block and grabbed a legal pad Patrick had not noticed sitting there. She flipped back through what appeared to be several pages of notes. "I started working on ideas Saturday night, and it just kept growing…so I started writing them down." She handed the pad to Patrick who quickly scanned over the scribbled thoughts.

"Well, everything seems to start with a romantic dinner. I will make a call to a café I know just around the corner and have them set up something special. But, believe me Maggie, she will be happy just to be with you." Patrick reached over and squeezed her hand. She smiled and looked up at him. "The hard part is over Maggie, now is the time to enjoy the fruits of your labor, and as for the details, don't over think them. That will just drive you more insane than you already are."

Maggie cracked a smile. "Patrick, have I told you how just unbelievably fantastic you are lately?"

Patrick laughed. "No, but I would prefer you call Giulia and tell her!" he said with a wink. "Seriously though…" he said, his face straightening out, "just think of it this way. You are a woman, you know how you like to be treated on a date, just do the same for her."

Maggie could feel tears welling up in her eyes, but she brushed them back. She spread her arms wide, inviting Patrick in for a hug, which he gladly stepped into. "Thank you Patrick. I can always count on you to calm me down."

"Oh, what a sad world this has come to when I am the calm one." he retorted.

June 14th – Afternoon

Bianca sat at her desk, trying her best to keep a serious expression while listening to the head of personnel. It was a bit difficult though as she had just received a video message from Reggie doing his 'Bianca & Maggie Are Finally Going On A Date!' happy dance. It looked something like an octopus having a grand mal seizure, but it was the thought that counted.

His dry monthly report over, the somber personnel manager left Bianca's office. She unfastened her suit jacket, and slumped back in her chair with a sigh. She stared off in to space for a moment as she thought back to a few days before, and a smile crept across her face yet again as she thought of Maggie asking her out.

Sadly, the reality of the situation was beginning to sink in. This is something she had been waiting years for, but there were certainly some complications to it due to Maggie not only living with her, but being Miranda's nanny. What if, though she doubted it would happen, this didn't work out? What if they went on this date and it just turned into a complete disaster? She was trying not to think of that too often, but she was nothing if not a realist.

She was also puzzled by how they were going to know they actually were on a date. Sure, they would be dressed up, but how would this be any different than say their going to any number of social events back in Pine Valley, or even when they went out to dinner together now? Patrick had already told her that Giulia would watch Miranda for them, but that was really the only difference. She knew that she had to find a way to show them both though, what was a romantic, date time and what was normal, everyday life.

Maggie's insistence on not telling her what they were doing on the date was also slowly driving her mad. Without knowing what they were doing, how could she even possibly begin to pick out clothes?

And the pressure of being the first girl Maggie had ever dated? Oh lord, the pressure of that alone was enough to want to send her screaming through the streets of Paris! It was amazing how much pressure she was feeling from something she had wanted so badly for so many years, and yet…..

bzzt "Ms. Montgomery? Your next appointment is here." came the voice from the intercom on her desk.

She sighed, sat up, buttoned her jacket again, took one more look at the non-stop looping video of Reggie dancing and reached over to push the button to speak back to her assistant. "Thank you Aurélia. You may show them in."

June 15th – Late Night

Maggie wandered around the library in the huge apartment. They hardly ever used this room, and she was beginning to see why. "I'm sorry Mr. Shakespeare, but unless you wrote a book I don't know about called '101 Things To Do On A Girl/Girl Date In Paris', you'll be no help tonight." she mumbled. "Classics…classics…classics…do we not have one blasted tourist guide to Paris in this confounded place?" she asked of no one in particular.

She stormed out of the library, legal pad in hand. "I need air." She blew through the living room and exited to the terrace. She plopped down in one of the chairs, closed her eyes, and breathed deeply of the night air. "Maybe if I suck in the city, I'll think of something." She took a deeper breath. "Nope…nothing."

Patrick had made her dump the notes from the other day, and told her repeatedly to just let things come to her naturally, but she was still obsessing about it, and had just started a new list the moment he left the apartment that day to go pick Bianca up from work. Things were getting crucial now though because she had to finalize things if, for no other reason, than Bianca could know what clothes to wear.

She had been asking Maggie daily about it. 'I don't want to add to your obvious stress or anything, but can you give me a clue as to what sort of clothes I should be choosing for Saturday?' She wanted to give Bianca an answer as soon as possible, but she just didn't know what to do. For the past few nights, after Bianca would go to bed, Maggie would spend her time trying to puzzle out what exactly they could do for this momentous occasion.

Everything she thought of felt like a tired old cliché of a date. She wanted to do something that would really sweep Bianca off her feet, but were there really any new ideas left in the world? After thousands of years of dating, hadn't every possible date been explored? What could she possibly come up with that would make this fantastic girl sit up and take notice? Patrick kept trying to reassure her that the date alone would be enough, but she didn't believe him.

She tapped her pen repeatedly against the legal pad while day dreaming about every movie she had ever watched that took place in Paris. Finally, in a fit of frustration, she got up and took a walk around the terrace, starting off in the direction of the kitchen.

Arriving at the corner, she turned left and walked along what would be the wall of her own, smaller apartment. "Think blast it! Patrick has arranged for the dinner, so we're aces there. It's just a few blocks away, actually….in that direction…" she nodded with her head as she reached another corner and turned left, now walking along what would be the back wall of the elevator. "So, I guess we could just walk over there…maybe we wouldn't even need Patrick to drive us…he could stay here with Giulia and watch Miranda."

She paused as she passed under one of the windows of Bianca's room, and looked up at it. "So, if we walk there…" she pondered aloud, "why couldn't we just as easily walk back along the river bank? Sure, it's been done in a thousand movies, but it's not that far out of our way, but still…how do I end the date?" She sighed and kept on walking, looking down at her feet as she was turning left at what would be the corner of the den.

"Do guys have it this rough? I mean really…do they sit around this much pondering what to do on a date? I doubt it, but also, how many of them have known the girl in question for going on four years, lived with them and taken care of their child?" She chuckled at her own rhetorical question.

Reaching the next corner, she stopped and looked out over the city. "I guess dinner and a walk will have to suffice since I can't seem to think of….anything….else…." Her words slowed as thoughts formed, and her eyes locked on the Eiffel Tower. "Maggie Stone…if it had been a cliché snake, it would have bitten you! We've lived here four months…we stare at it everyday…and yet, we've never been to it?"

She chuckled…that grew into a louder laugh…and that grew into something akin to maniacal laughter. "Oh my, you are dense sometimes….dense as a stone! HA! I made another funny!" She was suddenly glad no one was around to witness her sudden mental snap. Somehow, she doubted that losing one's hold on reality this close to their date was not a way to make a good impression.

Quietly she made her way back into the apartment, through the living room, and on to her own apartment. She tossed the legal pad in the trash can, along with the pen, crawled into bed and smiled. "Dense as a Stone! I kill me!" Drifting off to sleep, she could be heard to be mumbling "stupid tower."

June 16th – Morning

Bianca sat in the kitchen sipping her coffee, noticing that Maggie seemed to once again be chipper, despite having some serious bags under her eyes. "What are you so happy about this morning?" she inquired.

"Well…I finally have an answer for you!"

"About what?"

"About what you have been asking me everyday since I asked you out silly."

Bianca set down her coffee cup and clasped her hands to her chest dramatically. "You mean…I might finally have a clue…no no…it's too much to hope for…to much to dream…that I…Bianca Montgomery, would finally know…what to wear?"

"You know…I may have to reconsider this whole idea now. I didn't realize I was asking out a deranged woman." Maggie responded dryly.

Bianca smiled. "Fine. What are your clothing recommendations for this big, secretive, date?"

"Something comfortable that looks nice, but you won't mind walking some in."

A puzzled look crossed Bianca's face. "Ok…odd, but I think I can manage. Do I get to learn any more about the date yet?"

"All in due time."

"A woman of mystery…I'm intrigued." Bianca said slyly, her eyebrows arching.

June 16th – Afternoon

"PATRICK!"

"No Ma'am, I'm sorry."

"I order you to tell me!"

Patrick smiled. "Sorry Ma'am, not going to work."

Bianca slammed her hand down on the stack of fashion magazines sitting on her desk. She took a deep breath. "Patrick…do you see my desk?"

"Yes."

"Does it look like it's covered in work?"

"No Ma'am, it appears to be magazines."

"Yes Patrick…fashion magazines, because Maggie's clarification of what to wear was just a tiny bit vague! 'Dressy, yet comfortable to walk in'? You have to tell me what she has planned! I'm going nuts trying to figure out what she means!"

"Going…Ma'am?" Patrick asked with a crooked smile.

Bianca's eyelids turned to slits and she shook her head. "You are so not helping."

"Ma'am…Bianca…she told me as a friend. I can not betray her trust just because you are my employer. Let me just say that her description is accurate."

Bianca hung her head in defeat and sighed. "Fine…" She picked her purse up and pressed the intercom button. "Aurélia…please cancel any appointments I have for the rest of today….and tomorrow. Reschedule them all to next week."

"Yes Ma'am." came the reply.

"Come on Patrick, let's go."

"Where to Ma'am?"

"Shopping. We have two days to find me something 'dressy, but comfortable'."

June 16th – Evening

"'Dressy, but comfortable…dressy, but comfortable'" Maggie repeated over and over in a whiny voice. "What was that? Could I have been any more snotty? Lord…." she threw another pile of clothes from her wardrobe onto her bed. "I thought all my stress was over having figured out what we were doing on the date. I hadn't even given the first thought to what I was wearing!"

After throwing the last contents of her wardrobe on the bed, she stood back and stared at the piles. "Where do I even start?" She picked up a mixed-design top cut like a Japanese Yukata. "Really…what was I thinking when I even bought this? I actually wore this in public? Ick!" She tossed it on the floor and continued on.

"How to start? Pants?" she held up some jeans. "Skirt?" she held up a khaki colored denim skirt. "Or maybe an honest to goodness dress?" she looked down at a pile of dresses set off to the side. Her hands fell to her sides, the skirt on the left, the jeans on the right. "Again I say…do guys have this much trouble?"

Elsewhere in the city, Bianca strolled between shops, while Patrick stood leaning against the limo, smiling while he watched his employer mumbling to herself as she tried to choose an outfit.

She had stopped pulling him into stores with her as his answer was the same to every outfit she showed him. "I am sure she will like that Ma'am." Patrick had perfected this answer after going on many shopping trips with his wife and two daughters, and he was glad to see it still seemed to work.

He looked down at his watch and noticed that Bianca was taking a bit longer in a shop of vintage clothing than she had anywhere else. Concerned, he walked over and peered in the window of the shop. She was nowhere to be seen. He hoped she was only in the dressing room, but thought perhaps he should go in, just to be sure.

As he walked around the shop, Bianca was nowhere to be seen, but the door to the dressing room was closed. He gazed around at the racks of clothes that were now considered 'vintage' and it pained him that he could remember when they were considered the latest fashions. He chuckled and shook his head at this interesting way of acknowledging his own mortality.

"What's so amusing Patrick?" came Bianca's voice from the direction of the dressing room.

He turned to explain, but found himself at a sudden loss of words when he saw what she was trying on. "Ms. Montgomery….Bianca….look no further, you've found it."

She looked down at herself. "You really think so? Must be if I got an actual opinion out of you!"

"You're ready…I really mean it."

"Ok…clothes wise I am, but we have one more thing to get tomorrow, then I will be fully ready."

June 17th – Evening

Every flat surface in Maggie's apartment was covered in clothes. Some were arranged as if they were an outfit, some were heaped and some seemed to make no sense at all. She stood in the center of the room, rotating in one spot, looking at each pile in turn. "It's official….I hate every piece of clothing I own." She heaved a sigh and left for the kitchen to start dinner for the evening.

Bianca arrived home from work to find a frazzled Maggie sitting in the kitchen. "Everything ok?"

Maggie sighed. "It will be….soon….I hope."

"Well, good. Um…I hate to add to your problems, but…do you know what time we are going out tomorrow night?"

"Finally, an easy one." She turned and looked at Bianca and smiled as broadly as possible. "I will be picking you up at eight

"'Picking me up'?"

"Just go with it."

Bianca laughed. "Alright then. Eight it is." Bianca walked over to Maggie and put her left hand on her friend's right shoulder. "Are you still sure about this? If you are having any doubts, you can still back out if you want."

Maggie leaned her head over, squeezing Bianca's hand between her cheek and shoulder. "I'm fine…I promise. Just first date jitters, I swear. Totally normal."

Bianca rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, that's us, 'totally normal'."

Maggie lifted her head and turned to look at Bianca. "You know what I mean. This is just like any other first date. I just want to make a good impression is all."

Bianca smiled sweetly and cupped Maggie's cheek. "You already did…the day I first saw you at SOS."

Maggie blushed. "Oh you mean the day you collapsed to the floor? Yeah, that was a great start wasn't it?" she said while chuckling.

"You know what I mean. Just going out with you is perfect Maggie. What we do on the date is just a bonus."

"You have been hanging out with Patrick again haven't you?"

Bianca laughed. "How ever did you guess?"

"Kinda obvious. Anyway…how about we just agree, no more date talk until the date?"

"Sounds good. Now, where's my dinner?" Bianca asked with an evil grin.

"Uh oh, the boss is back!"

June 17th – Late Night

With less than twenty-four hours to go to the date, Maggie's bed only had one outfit remaining on it. "It will just have to do. Dinner is going to drain me as it is, and I have no time left to go buy a new outfit. A few accessories and I should be good to go." She picked up the outfit and laid it over the back of her desk chair. Running her hand over it, she mumbled, "You have to do."

She looked over at her clock and saw how late it was. "Course, if I don't get some sleep, the outfit and plans won't matter as I will collapse before we even get out of the building."

Collapsing on to her bed she looked back over at the chair. "Yeah…you will do won't you?" And with that, she closed her eyes, and fell asleep peacefully for the first time since she had asked her best friend out on a date.


	8. Chapter 8

June 18th – Morning

Bianca woke up in a slow, natural manner. She had nothing pressing to do this morning, so she had not even bothered to set her alarm. Her eyes blinked open and she looked towards the window, and the sunlight pouring in.

She stretched her arms and smiled broadly as she woke up more. "It's finally here." She mumbled. "Almost four years, and it's finally here." She swung her legs out of the bed and got out. She walked over to the window and threw the curtains open and looked out over the city. "Let's just hope it goes well."

Maggie smacked the alarm clock to turn it off. It really hadn't woken her up though. She had slept for a few hours, but then something in her brain clicked on and she was never able to shut it down again. While she had figured out all the fine details of their first date, at last, she was just now having plain old nervous jitters.

This was a huge step for anyone. They were friends of nearly four years…they had a working relationship….they lived together…and they were both women. This was Maggie's first date with a woman. The first time she was actively acknowledging the fact that she was in love with a female, and while that certainly played a factor in her nerves, she did find some solace in the fact it wasn't the only, nor the biggest one.

June 18th – Early evening

Bianca and Maggie had spent the day just doing normal, lazy summer afternoon chores. A bit of cleaning, some lounging and a bite of a light lunch, but not a word of a certain event that hung over both their heads like the proverbial sword.

There had been lots of pregnant pauses throughout the day;nervous giggles, awkward moments passing each other in the halls and numerous lingering looks. Both girls held to their promise of the night before though, and nothing was mentioned of the date that loomed ahead for both.

Maggie had disappeared for about an hour at one point during the day, returning without showing Bianca anything she had gotten while she was out. When questioned, she had said it was just a last minute accessory and not a big deal. The rest of the day was indistinguishable from any other weekend day they spent together.

As 5 PM rolled around, they both had a sandwich in the kitchen. As they placed their plates in the sink afterwards, they looked at each other and both began blushing.

"Well…I…um….have some things I need to do." Maggie said nervously, looking down into the sink."

"Yeah…me too."

"So…I guess I'll go do them….see you at 8?"

"I wouldn't miss it for anything." Bianca said with a smile. "May I ask one thing?"

"Of course." Maggie said nervously, unsure what the question would be.

"Do you know what time Patrick and Guilia will be here? I just want to make sure Miranda's ready."

"Oh…" relief passing over Maggie's face. "they said 7:30."

"Ok….see you at 8 then." Bianca said, smiling broadly.

"8 it is then." Maggie said, a lump forming in her throat.

June 18th – 7:30 PM

"Why is he so blasted prompt?" Bianca grumbled as she ran for the front door in her robe.

She opened the door and it was immediately flung wider. Guilia was in the lead, Patrick following behind, loaded down with grocery bags and looking very un-Patrick like and distressed. Guilia quickly kissed both of Bianca's cheeks and asked, in French, where Miranda was.

"She's in the den, in her crib." Bianca replied, also in French. Guilia quickly looked around, figured out where the den was, and headed straight for it. Bianca turned to Patrick. "What's with all the bags?"

"My darling wife was very upset when I told her you rarely eat at home and that you don't keep much food in the apartment." he said, setting the bags down on the hallway table.

Bianca rolled her eyes. "She didn't need to bring anything. I am capable of stocking my own kitchen…I just don't!" she punctuated with a giggle. "Thank you both so much for doing this by the way."

Patrick smiled at her. "Not a problem, it is all in the name of a very good cause." he said with a wink that caused Bianca to blush. He looked her up and down, "Now, don't you think you might want to go finish getting ready?"

Bianca looked down at her robe. "Who say's I'm not? This is all the rage in the fashion magazines!" she said with a chuckle. She turned to walk back towards the living room so she could go upstairs.

Guilia returned to the front hall with Miranda in her arms. "Don't just stand there like a lump!" she said in Italian. "There are four more bags of groceries down in the car!"

Patrick hung his head. "Yes dear."

Maggie stood in her room, fastening a belt she had bought earlier that day around her waist. She turned and looked at herself in the mirror. She heaved a sigh and mumbled, "No time to change my mind, it'll just have to do." She looked over at the clock. She still had ten minutes to kill. She walked over to the door that led from her room to the kitchen and pressed her ear to it to see if she could hear anything. She heard Patrick and Guilia conversing in Italian, but no sign of Bianca.

She cracked the door open enough to see in to the room and Patrick immediately turned to look. "Well hello there." he said with a grin.

"Hi….where is she?"

"Upstairs, still getting ready."

Guilia leaned around so she could see and said something in Italian to Patrick, which he translated for Maggie. "She say's hello and wants to know if we can see what you have on, if you're ready."

"Tell her hello back and you can all see when Bianca sees me." Maggie sniffed the air. "What do I smell?"

"Your dinner for the rest of the week."

"Okay…odd….but I will take your word for it. See you in a little while." and she closed the door. She walked back over to the mirror, ran her hand down her clothes to smooth them out, took a deep breath and smacked her hands against her sides. She looked up to the sky, smiled and said, "Alright Frankie….here we go." Grabbing her purse, she exited the front of her apartment out into the hallway.

June 18th – 8:00 PM

"Deep breaths….deep breaths." Bianca said repeatedly, while taking one last look in the mirror. Her outfit looked something like it came straight out of a 1950's musical. The skirt was a black poodle skirt, minus the poodle, with a shiny black leather belt at the waist. The top had black-and-white horizontal stripes and was very tight. The sleeves were three quarters and the tops barely came up on to her shoulders, making it almost shoulder-less. Her hair was done up in light bouncy curls and her shoes were 1 inch, backless kitten heel sandals.

"Ok…so…yeah…", she grabbed her handbag, flipped off the lights and headed downstairs to…well, she wasn't really sure what to expect since Maggie had insisted on 'picking her up'.

Just as she got to the entry hall, there was a knock on the front door. She looked at her watch and saw it was 8:00 exactly. She smiled. "Well, she's a prompt date at least." As she passed the entry to the dining room, she tried to ignore the very obvious spectacle of Patrick and Guilia, who had Miranda in her arms, racing to the hallway so they could watch. She did catch Patrick smiling at her and Guilia saying 'gorgeous' in French. She blushed.

Bianca reached for the door, placed her hand on the handle, took a deep breath, and opened it. Maggie stood in front of her in a fawn colored peasant skirt with a spaghetti-strap white top. Her lime green belt matched the handbag and her flip flop sandals had yellow daisy appliqués over the toes. Her hair was pulled up in the back and affixed with chopsticks.

Bianca paused, making Maggie shuffle nervously. "Hi…I'm…um….here to pick you up for our date."

Bianca chuckled. "You could have just come through the kitchen you know."

"This seemed to make it more official. You look…wow…you look fantastic." She looked down at her own outfit and fussed with the skirt.

Bianca smiled a small, warm smile realizing she was uneasy about her clothes choice. "And so do you. Is that belt new?"

Maggie smiled. "Yeah, it is, that's what I went to buy today….and the handbag." she said, holding it up.

"Nice!" Bianca said enthusiastically. Which was followed by an awkward silence as both girls stared at each other, unsure what to do.

"Well, you two girls have fun! Guilia and I will handle Miranda for you." Patrick said, stepping into the hallway.

Both girls let out a small sigh of relief at Patrick's sudden, and obvious, intervention. "You have my cell number right?" Bianca asked Patrick.

"Yes, yes, don't worry! Guilia and I did raise two of our own you know." he said with a smile. "Now you two go have a lovely evening, and don't you dare rush back."

"Yes sir." she said with a little mock salute.

Maggie stepped in to the entryway and gave Patrick a one armed hug, and peck on the cheek while standing on the tips of her toes. She whispered in his ear, "Thank you Patrick…thank you for everything."

He smiled and broke the hug. "Now, you two get out of here! You have a dinner reservation for 8:30!"

They said their goodbyes, kissed a giggling Miranda on the head, and made their way to the elevator. As Patrick closed the door, and turned towards his wife and made a sniffling sound. Guilia looked at him and smirked. "Softy." she said in Italian, and made her way towards the kitchen.

"What? I had something in my eye!" he replied, as he followed her.

June 18th – 8:30 PM

The girls had walked to the restaurant Patrick had made their reservation at. On their way over they had discussed how cute a couple Patrick and Guilia make and how she has Patrick wrapped around her little finger, but in a cute, endearing way.

They walked into the restaurant, and Bianca spoke to the maitre'd in French, telling him that their reservation had been made by Patrick. He clapped his hands together and acted very jovial at the mention of his name. He led the girls off to the side and up two flights of stairs. The first flight made sense as there were more diners up there, but the second flight took them through a storage room.

Maggie tugged on Bianca's skirt, as she was in front of her, and higher up on the stairs. When Bianca looked at her, Maggie gave her a look like, 'What in the world…?' and Bianca responded with a shrug of uncertainty.

After passing through the storage room, they went up a much smaller staircase and through a door that led to the roof. Now Maggie could appreciate why Patrick making the reservation was a good idea. He said he knew the people who ran this restaurant, and it paid off.

In the middle of the open area of the roof there sat a table with a white linen tablecloth and all the necessary accessories for a fine meal. A single red rose lay upon each of the two diner's plates, and a candle stood next to each plate to illuminate where the diner's face would likely be. In the center of the table, but off to the side a bit so as not to obstruct anyone's view, was a larger bouquet of roses in a glass vase. A bucket stood next to the table with a large bottle of champagne chilling in it. Around the edges of the roof there were little tables placed at intervals, and on each one stood lit candles of varying heights.

Bianca and Maggie looked at each other, their jaws sagging a bit at the elaborate set-up. The maitre'd pulled out the first chair, and gestured for Bianca to take it, she sat herself, and then he followed suit for Maggie. Once seated he handed them menus, popped the champagne, poured each of them a glass and excused himself, saying their waiter would be up in a moment to take their orders.

Once gone, Maggie looked at Bianca and asked, "Is it just me, or do you get the feeling we don't even know a tenth of what there is to know about Patrick?"

"I know what you mean. I had him checked out as much as I could before I chose him, but a background check doesn't tell you much about who he knows in his personal life." Bianca glanced down at the menu, and seeing as it was all in French, she asked Maggie if she would like her to order for her.

Maggie blushed. "If you wouldn't mind."

"Of course not, don't be silly!"

The waiter appeared promptly and Bianca gave him their order. Maggie hated to admit it, but she loved listening to Bianca speak French. Sure, it made her feel a little like Gomez Addams attacking Morticia every time she did it, but she had to say she felt she understood the motivation a lot better after listening to her speak it for four months.

After the waiter disappeared Maggie started chuckling, which made Bianca curious. "What's so funny?"

"The waiter's going to need a good tip after bringing our food all the way up here!"

Bianca sat there for a moment, but eventually started chuckling also. "Yeah, it may be romantic up here, but not exactly practical for the poor staff."

After the chuckling subsided, both girls sat in an awkward silence. They looked around at their surroundings, but neither looked at the other. Finally, Maggie reached for her champagne, which caused Bianca to speak up. "We should make a toast!"

Maggie stopped halfway to her mouth and pondered for a moment. "Ok…to what?"

"Well, I would suppose to this evening." she said, as she raised her glass.

Maggie leaned forward to clink her glass with Bianca's. "And to Patrick, for stepping up and making all this possible."

"Yes, to Patrick….and to us." she said as her voice drifted off.

"To us." Maggie said meekly, and took a large gulp of her drink.

Bianca could tell Maggie wasn't comfortable, and she was unsure what to do. She rose from her chair and wandered over to the edge of the roof to see what all could be seen. Across the street was the bank of the river. On the other side of the waterway she could make out the Grand Palais, and next to that, the Petit Palis. Barges passed each other under the Pont Alexander III bridge.

It was a gorgeous night, and a fantastic view, made only better by Maggie walking up beside her. As Maggie took in their surroundings, Bianca took in the sight of her best friend-turned-date.

"Quite the view isn't it?" Maggie asked.

"Yes, it is." Bianca replied as her eyes traced up Maggie's exposed neck.

Maggie could see out of the corner of her eye that Bianca was looking more at her than at the surroundings. She bit her lower lip before asking, "What? Do I have something on my neck?" She raised her right hand and rubbed at the invisible spot.

Bianca blushed, realizing she had been caught. "No, nothing there."

The girls' awkward moment was broken by the waiter returning with their salads. They smiled at each other, and returned to the table and took their seats again. Both of them tried to stifle giggles as they could tell the waiter was a little bit out of breath from coming up all those stairs.

After he departed the girls sat in silence, staring down at their plates, neither speaking as they ate. The only sounds that could be heard were utensils on plates, and those wafting up from the street below. After about five minutes of this, it was Bianca who dropped her fork to her plate and sat back in frustration. "This is ridiculous!" she said.

Maggie looked shocked. "Wh…what's wrong?"

"Us…this!" she said gesturing back and forth between the two of them.

Maggie's expression saddened. "You…you don't want to be here?"

"No! I do want to be here, but what is with this silence between us? This awkwardness? We're best friends first-and-foremost, so why are we sitting here so quietly?"

"Oh! Well…I don't know…I can't seem to think of anything to say. Everything I think of, you already know. None of my 'first date banter'", she said with air quotes, "is really going to work with you because we know everything there is to know about each other by now."

"Well, yes and no….I mean, I only recently learned the story of the tattoo for instance, so certainly there are other things I don't know."

Maggie sat back and thought. "I really can't think of anything….what about you? Isn't there…oh! I know! Remember that night we went swimming…the night before you went to work at Enchantment?"

"Yeah." Bianca said with some apprehension.

"You told me that one of the ways you knew you were gay was that you wanted to marry the Spice Girls."

Bianca started laughing. "Yes, this is true."

"Well…" Maggie leaned forward again, and picked at her food while getting her crooked smirk across her face, "certainly you had one you preferred over the others."

Bianca blushed. "Our first date, and you want to know which Spice Girl I preferred?"

Maggie lifted the fork to her mouth, her smirk broadening. "Come on, let it out….who was it? Sporty? Scary? Baby?" she took the bite of the salad."

Bianca leaned forward, picked up her own fork, but refused to make eye contact with Maggie now. After a few seconds she finally mumbled something and quickly took a bite.

"What? You mumbled."

"Ginger! I liked Ginger ok? Jeez!" Bianca shouted while laughing.

Maggie choked on her salad and had to take a drink of water. "Ok! Chill out!" She picked up another forkful of salad. "Although, I have to say, I thought it was going to be Sporty."

A napkin flew across the table and hit her in the face.

June 18th – 10:00 PM

The conversation remained light and playful throughout the remainder of the meal. The awkwardness of the situation finally dissolved, and the girls could enjoy themselves again. While it didn't always feel like a date, it was certainly the most 'girly' they had been in a long time.

Full from a fabulous meal, the girls pushed back from the table and held their stomachs. "I know this isn't the most romantic thing ever to say, but…I think I might very well explode." said Maggie.

Bianca's head was resting on the back of the chair while she stared skyward. "That's ok, I probably will too. We have to remember to come here more often."

"Do you have a death wish I am unaware of? Food this good, on a regular basis, and we will balloon to the size of houses!"

"Well, I can think of worse ways to die then exploding from overeating."

"Really? Name one."

"Being run over by a Zamboni."

Maggie lifted her head and stared at Bianca. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. Opened it again, paused, and spoke. "Your mind is a truly frightening place sometimes, did you know that?"

"I do what I can."

The waiter returned with their bill and asked who he should give it to in French. Bianca spoke up and took it from him as she sat upright in her chair. She reached for her purse to get out a credit card.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Paying for dinner….why?"

Maggie stared at her blankly. "Who asked who out?"

It finally dawned on Bianca what was being said, and she paused. "I…I'm sorry, I just wasn't thinking." She set down her purse and handed the bill over to Maggie.

Maggie took it with smile, opened it and…..gulped. She picked up her purse, flipped through a couple credit cards, decided on one, and handed it to the waiter, who smiled as he left. She then folded her arms and leaned forward, resting on the table and looking apprehensive.

Bianca leaned forward and slipped a hand across the table to rest on Maggie's arm. "Is everything ok?"

"Well….I think that card has enough room. I'm not sure."

Bianca smiled a warm, comforting smile. "If not, I can take care of it."

Maggie shot her a glance. "That's not the point Bianca. I asked you out, I pay."

"I understand, but this place is pretty hefty…"

"It'll be fine, just close is all."

"Well, if it's close, why don't you let me handle the tip ok?"

Maggie pondered that for a moment, and finally agreed. The waiter returned with a slip for her to sign, which meant all was well. She signed it, and Bianca got some cash out of her purse and palmed it to the waiter. Maggie wasn't sure how much it was, but knowing Bianca, it was generous.

The waiter led them back down to the ground floor, they thanked the staff and exited out on to the street. Bianca looked at Maggie and asked, "So….where to now?"

Maggie gestured with her head across the street, and told Bianca to follow her. They went to the corner and crossed the street so they were standing on top of the banks of the Seine River. They turned to the right so they were walking towards the Pont Alexandre III bridge. Once there, there was a staircase that led down to the paved walkway along the river. They went down and began to backtrack the way they came.

"How did you know the stairs were here?" Bianca asked the suddenly quiet Maggie.

"There's a set next to each bridge, so I used my enormous IQ to figure out there was one here also." she said with a chuckle.

Bianca knew this, of course, but she was trying to get Maggie's mood to lighten some. She had noticed she had started to go quiet again since the bill, and she wasn't going to let that happen. "So when are you finally going to tell me where this secret destination is?"

Maggie giggled. "You'll see…come on." She moved her handbag from her right hand , to her left and stuck out her, now empty, right hand in mid-air.

Bianca stared at the hand, startled by the gesture, but she took it. They both smiled at each other and continued down the river bank, walking hand-in-hand.

Halfway between Pont de Invalides and Pont de L'alma, they could hear music coming from somewhere. As they got closer to de L'alma, the music got louder and they could hear it coming from the pilot cabin on one of the passing boats. The music stopped, and the DJ spoke in French as the girls continued to walk hand-in-hand down the river bank.

Maggie stopped walking for a moment, and freed her hand from Bianca's. "Give me just a second, these chopsticks are driving me nuts!" She reached up with her right hand and took them out, letting her hair fall loose. She shook her head once, and then ran her fingers through the mass of hair to untangle it. She opened her purse and dropped the hair accessories in. "Much better."

While all this had gone on, Bianca had watched with great interest. Once it was over, she silently decided that it ranked as one of the three sexiest things she had ever witnessed…though she had no clue what the other two were right then.

The DJ on the radio finally stopped talking as the boat drew closer to the girls, and the first chords of Eric Clapton's song 'Wonderful Tonight' could be heard drifting across the water. Bianca smiled and closed her eyes swaying slightly. "Man, I love this song."

Maggie grunted agreement as she fiddled with her hair some more. Once done, she closed her handbag and turned to tell Bianca they should keep moving, but seeing Bianca standing there smiling, eye's closed, swaying to the beat, she couldn't bring herself to snap her out of whatever happy place it was she had gone to. As the first words started to reach them…' _It's late in the evening; she's wondering what clothes to wear…._' she couldn't help, but to break the silence.

Maggie set down her purse on the ground and moved closer to Bianca. "Ms. Montgomery?"

Bianca's eyes snapped open. "What? Oh…I'm sorry…we probably should…" she saw an even bigger grin creeping across Maggie's face. "What? What is it?"

"I was wondering if you would care to dance?"

Bianca blushed a deep crimson. She set down her handbag also and turned back to Maggie. "Why Ms. Stone, I would be delighted….but as with the last time we danced, I must insist on leading."

"But of course!"

As they got closer to begin dancing, Bianca's right hand went up to take the lead, but something didn't feel right to either of them. Maggie's arms gravitated to Bianca's neck, and Bianca's to Maggie's waist. They looked into each other's eyes, searching for discomfort or awkwardness. Neither found any.

Maggie turned her head to her right and rested it on Bianca's arm. Bianca turned her head to the left and rested it on top of Maggie's. They swayed, more than they did any real form of dance.

At that time, with their eyes closed, their hearing tuned only to the sounds of that passing radio, leaving them in their own little world. There was no Cambias Industries, no Jonathon Lavery, no Lena and no medical school. There were two people who had gone through four years of false starts and mis-steps that finally led to this perfect jewel of a moment. It was like something out of a 1950's musical, but instead of some imaginary orchestra playing inside their heads, it was a cheap radio hanging from the ceiling of a boat, suspended by some scrap pieces of twine.

They didn't get to hear the full song as the boat drifted further down the river, but they could just make out that last line of the song '_Oh my darling, you were wonderful tonight'._ As the last word drifted away, they stopped their swaying, lifted their heads and stared deeply at each other.

"We…uh…should probably…get going…" Maggie said hesitantly.

"Yeah…let me just…get my purse…"

"Me too…"

They very slowly, reluctantly, pulled away from each other and picked up their respective purses and turned to once again face each other. "Ready?" Maggie asked.

"Yeah." came a dry, cracking reply from Bianca. As Maggie turned to face the direction of their destination, Bianca held out her hand again to take Maggie's. Maggie smiled and gladly accepted it. "Thank you Maggie."

"For what?"

"Just…thank you."

Maggie gave her a perplexed look and finally said, "You're welcome?"

"Come on…I thought we had some place we had to be." Bianca said as she started walking again.

"This night just gets weirder and weirder." Maggie mumbled as she followed along.

Maggie had taken back over the lead as they walked along the banks of the Seine. As they reached Pont D'Iena, they finally climbed the stairs to go back up to street level. Standing in front of them, in all it's lit up, iron glory, was the Eiffel Tower.

Maggie dragged Bianca across Quai Branly street and to the tower itself. Once there, she left Bianca for a moment while she disappeared some where. When she returned, she had tickets for them to ride the elevator to the top floor. "Here." she said as she handed one ticket to Bianca. She stood there for a moment, seeming to ponder the ticket. Maggie finally asked her, "What? What's wrong?"

"It just dawned on me, how in the world have we lived within blocks of the Eiffel Tower for four months, and not been here yet?"

Maggie grinned and nearly shouted, "I know!" She looked around to make sure no one thought she was completely crazy and lowered her voice again. "That's why when I was coming up with ideas for what we could do tonight, it struck me as hilarious that it was so obvious that I was overlooking it." She glanced down at her watch. "We have to hurry though, this is the last elevator to the top for tonight."

They dashed over, gave their tickets, and loaded into the elevator for the ascent, first to the second floor, and then on to the top of one of the world's most famous, and romantic, landmarks.

Bianca and Maggie walked around the top floor, looking at all the different views of Paris. Though it was only nine hundred feet up, it felt like they could see forever. They stepped outside of the booth to the external balcony to enjoy the night air.

"Do you think living in Paris will ever feel 'normal'?" Maggie asked.

"I sure hope it doesn't." responded Bianca. "In a city like this, with so much to explore and do, I would be highly disappointed if we ever got bored."

"Can't argue with that." Maggie looked around and spotted one of the telescopes you could pay to look through to take in the city. She nudged Bianca and pointed to it. "Shall we?"

"We would be silly not to."

They walked over, fished out some coins from their purses, and dropped them in. The viewer clicked open and Bianca took the first turn looking at the city. "You know what…it kinda loses the magic looking through this." she said as she stepped back. I think I prefer just looking out myself, and not so close up."

"Oh well…still has time though, so I should take a look anyway." Maggie stepped up and started looking around while Bianca stood behind her enjoying the night air. "Oh! I wonder if you can see our apartment from up here." Maggie said.

"Don't know why you couldn't. Look down to the left."

Maggie swung the telescope in that direction and started looking. "Let's see….there's the street….the café…oh there's our building!" She panned up a bit. "Oh yeah! You can see everything! Wow…those big windows really don't provide a whole lot of privacy do they? We should think….."

Bianca turned to look at Maggie. "Think what?"

Maggie took a step back from the telescope. Her jaw slackened, her eyes wide, she almost appeared to be in shock. "Do you have a nail file with you?"

Bianca lifted her purse and opened it to look around. "I think so, why do you need it?"

"I need to scrape my eyes out."

Bianca stopped looking through the purse and went back to looking at her friend. "Excuse me?"

"I….just saw something I really didn't want to see."

"What?"

"Oh no…I am going to try to forget this thank you very much."

Bianca couldn't resist the urge. She walked over and looked through the telescope herself. She found the apartment again, looked in the living room and there, on the couch, she could tell there were two people sitting there…..making out like teenagers. "That…oh wow…Patrick and Guilia….well…it's sweet they still feel that way towards each other!"

"No it's not! It's disturbing is what it is! That's Patrick for crying out loud…making out with Guilia….it's like figuring out your parents are still into each other!"

Bianca laughed as she pulled her head away from the telescope. "Or in my case, it's like finding out your mom and uncle are having an affair. All I ask is you don't burn down the apartment like I did my mother's house."

"Can I just burn that couch? Because I can tell you right now, I am never sitting on it again!"

Bianca rolled her eyes. "Oh please…I am sure Miranda is in bed, they were bored…I think it's kind of sweet that they still have enough feelings for each other to want to make out."

"No….no I'm sure of it….this ranks more in the realm of 'disturbing' than 'sweet'."

Bianca nudged her with her elbow while grinning a big, toothy grin. "Oh come on, don't tell me I'm the only romantic here!"

"This has nothing to do with romance! It's like seeing your parents make out! It's not sweet, it's not romantic, it's just plain icky!"

"Well I think it's sweet…but, neither of us can say anything or else they will think we were checking up on them."

"Oh believe me, I have no desire to ever discuss this again!"

Bianca laughed. "Come on…let's enjoy our last few minutes up here before we have to go back down." As they started walking around the balcony again, she could see Maggie scrunching up her face again at the thought of Patrick making out with his wife. Bianca turned her head and smiled to herself. "Oh how I love her." she thought.

Back down on the ground, the girls walked slower than normal through Champ De Mars park. Neither of them seemed overly eager for the night to be over, but with the hour being past midnight, they felt they should get home so Patrick and Guilia could head home themselves. Bianca grinned every time she said Patrick's name now because it would make Maggie shudder. As they approached, and crossed the Avenus Elisee Reclus, both girls started to get quiet again, knowing their date was quickly coming to an end.

Maggie clasped her hands behind her back and began to twist a little as she walked so her purse swung side-to-side behind her. "So….." she said before pausing for a long while.

"Yes?" Bianca replied, clasping her hands in front of her in a more subdued fashion.

"I hope I…I wasn't….I….I hope the date lived up to what you expected."

Bianca stopped as they prepared to cross their street, Avenue de la Bourdonnais. "Maggie! I wasn't 'expecting' anything. We could have gone to a class on Peruvian Underwater Basket Weaving and I would have been happy!"

Maggie grinned. "I…I just know what you are used to, and I wasn't sure I could give that to you."

"What I'm used to? Hello….I haven't had a date in how long? I'm used to nothing!"

Maggie had to laugh at that. "Ok…good point….I…I just wanted this night…this night of all nights, to be perfect."

Bianca turned to face Maggie and grabbed her by the shoulders. She stared at her silently for a moment, and then pulled her closer and hugged her. "It has been Maggie…it was perfect the moment you showed up at the door and knocked. And in the future, just don't worry about where we are going or living up to what I 'expect', we will always figure something out. I promise…." Bianca's face contorted into horror as she realized what she had just said. "Well…that is…if there's another date I mean." she said as she finally pushed Maggie away from her and began to blush.

Maggie smiled and thought 'Yes! Finally it's not just me who feels awkward!'. Her smile broadened slightly and said, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it…for now…let's keep walking, we have to get back and let the….'teenagers' head home."

The girls entered the apartment and found Patrick and Guilia putting food away in the refrigerator. Patrick looked up first. "Well hello there! We were thinking it was about time for you two to get back."

"Yeah….so you would know when to get off the couch." Maggie mumbled.

Bianca elbowed her. "Was Miranda any problem?"

Patrick eyed the elbowing, but said nothing about it. "No, she was an absolute delight. She went to bed with no problem and was quiet as could be."

Bianca smiled. "Oh good! Thank you both so much for doing this!"

Patrick relayed the thank you to Guilia in Italian. She smiled and told Bianca to think nothing of it in French. "Well, we should get out of here, I am sure you are tired from a full night."

Maggie opened her mouth to say something, but Bianca shot her a look, cutting her off. She finally said, "Yes…and oh, thank you so much for your help with the restaurant! They did a lovely job."

Patrick smiled. "Not a problem! I am glad I could be of help."

Patrick and Guilia gathered up their things and the girls followed them to the door to see them out. The whole way, Guilia was talking to Bianca in French about how to warm up all the meals she had left for them. They all hugged and said their "thank you's" and "good-byes", even Maggie, who did hers with some hesitation, but she did finally hug both of them.

The door closed and the girls stood alone, and quiet, in the entrance hallway, the realization that this was the end of their date creeping into the corners of their minds. They turned to face each other, blushed, shuffled their feet and looked at the floor a lot. Neither of them sure of what to say or do.

"I….I had a really good time." said Bianca.

Maggie smiled a small, barely noticeable grin. "Me too. Thank you for….for agreeing to this."

Bianca blushed. "Of course."

"I….well….wow this is tough…."

"What? Just say it Maggie."

"I….was wondering if….you would like to go out again sometime? You don't have to of course, I mean, if you didn't enjoy yourself or if it wasn't what you were hoping for…"

Bianca cut her off by grabbing her hands into hers. "Maggie, I would love to go out with you again. You just tell me when you are ready and I'll happily be there."

"Ok." Maggie said with a touch of relief in her voice. "So….I guess this is goodnight then."

Both their bodies stiffened at the thought of what that meant. They looked into each other's eyes, yet again, trying to see some sign of what the other wanted to do. Finally, Bianca stepped closer, leaned forward, and placed a very light kiss on Maggie's forehead. She stepped back and looked for a sign of how that sat with Maggie. From what she could tell, she looked relieved. "Thank you for a lovely evening Maggie."

She turned to leave for the living room and Maggie said "And thank you for ending the date there because I had no clue whatsoever of what to do!"

Both girls laughed at Maggie's honest bluntness as they walked off in their separate directions.

_This ends "Empowerment", but I will be back soon with "Perceptions". I view BAM getting to the date to have only been one hurdle. Now they must deal with how they perceive themselves and how others do the same. How do you handle living with someone you are romantic with while not really "living with them" and so on. Oh so many questions left to be answered. And time permitting, a little taste of what's happening back in Pine Valley._


End file.
